In English traditional grammar types, three types of object are acknowledged: direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of prepositions. These object types are illustrated in the following table:
Type
Example
Direct object
She sees the dog
Indirect object
I gave the man salt
Object of preposition
You fish for salmon
Indirect objects are frequently expressed as objects of prepositions, complicating the traditional typology; e.g. "I gave salt to the man."
Some Chinese verbs can have two direct objects, one being more closely bound to the verb than the other; these may be called "inner" and "outer" objects.
Secundative languages lack a distinction between direct and indirect objects, but rather distinguish primary and secondary objects.[6] Many African languages fall into this typological category.[7]
While the typical object is a pronoun, noun, or noun phrase, objects can also appear as other syntactic categories, as illustrated in the following table for the English language:
A number of criteria can be employed for identifying objects, e.g.:[8]
1. Subject of passive sentence: Most objects in active sentences can become the subject in the corresponding passive sentences.[9]
2. Position occupied: In languages with strict word order, the subject and the object tend to occupy set positions in unmarked declarative clauses.
3. Morphological case: In languages that have case systems, objects are marked by certain cases (accusative, dative, genitive, instrumental, etc.).
Languages vary significantly with respect to these criteria. The first criterion identifies objects reliably most of the time in English, e.g.
Fred gave me a book.
a. A book was given (to) me.—Passive sentence identifies a book as an object in the starting sentence.
b. I was given a book.—Passive sentence identifies me as an object in the starting sentence.
The second criterion is also a reliable criterion for analytic languages such as English, since the relatively strict word order of English usually positions the object after the verb(s) in declarative sentences. In the majority of languages with fixed word order, the subject precedes the object. However, the opposite is true for the very small proportion (approximately 2.9%) of the world's languages that utilize object–subject word order by default.[10]
Verbs can be classified according to the number and/or type of objects that they do or do not take. The following table provides an overview of some of the various verb classes:[11]
Transitive verbs
Number of objects
Examples
Monotransitive
One object
Ifed the dog.
Ditransitive
Two objects
You lent me a lawnmower.
Tritransitive
Three objects
I'll trade you this bicycle for your binoculars.[12]
Ergative[13] and object-deletion verbs[14] can be transitive or intransitive, as indicated in the following table:
Transitive
Example
Ergative
The submarine sank the freighter.
Object deletion
We have already eaten dinner.
Intransitive
Example
Ergative
The freighter sank.
Object deletion
We have already eaten.
The distinction drawn here between ergative and object-deletion verbs is based on the role of the subject. The object of a transitive ergative verb is the subject of the corresponding intransitive ergative verb. With object-deletion verbs, in contrast, the subject is consistent regardless of whether an object is or is not present.
Objects are distinguished from subjects in the syntactic trees that represent sentence structure. The subject appears (as high or) higher in the syntactic structure than the object. The following trees of a dependency grammar illustrate the hierarchical positions of subjects and objects:[15]
The subject is in blue, and the object in orange. The subject is consistently a dependent of the finite verb, whereas the object is a dependent of the lowest non-finite verb if such a verb is present.
^Dryer, Matthew S. (December 1986). "Primary Objects, Secondary Objects, and Antidative". Language. 62 (4): 808–845. doi:10.2307/415173. JSTOR415173.
^See Biber et al. (1999:126) for a similar list of characteristics that identify (direct) objects.
^Concerning the passive as a diagnostic for identifying objects, see for instance Freeborn (1995:175) and Biber et al. (1999:126).
^Dryer, Matthew S. (2013). "Order of Subject, Object and Verb". In Dryer, Matthew S.; Haspelmath, Martin (eds.). The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
^For a classification of transitive verbs along the lines used here but using different terminology, see for instance Conner (1968:103ff.).
Ágel, V., L. Eichinger, H.-W. Eroms, P. Hellwig, H. Heringer, and H. Lobin (eds.) 2003/6. Dependency and valency: An international handbook of contemporary research. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Biber, D. et al. 1999. Longman Grammar of spoken and written English. Essex, England: Pearson Education limited.
Carnie, A. 2013. Syntax: A generative introduction, 3rd edition. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Collins Cobuild English Grammar 1995. London: HarperCollins Publishers.
Conner, J. 1968. A grammar of standard English. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Freeborn, D. 1995. A course book in English grammar: Standard English and the dialects, 2nd edition. London: MacMillan Press LTD.
Keenan, E. and B. Comrie 1977. Noun phrase accessibility and universal grammar. Linguistic Inquiry 8. 63–99.
Kesner Bland, S. Intermediate grammar: From form to meaning and use. New York: Oxford University Press.
