Traditional grammar defines the object in a sentence as the entity that is acted upon by the subject.

[1] There is thus a primary distinction between subjects and objects that is understood in terms of the action expressed by the verb, e.g. Tom studies grammar - Tom is the subject andgrammar is the object. Traditional theories of sentence structure divide the simple sentence into asubject and a predicate,[2] whereby the object is taken to be part of the predicate.[3] Many modern theories of grammar (e.g. dependency grammars), in contrast, take the object to be a verbargument like the subject, the difference between them being mainly just their prominence; the subject is ranked higher than the object and is thus more prominent.[4] The main verb in a clause determines if and what objects are present. Transitive verbs require the presence of an object, whereas intransitive verbs block the appearance of an object.[5] The termcomplement overlaps in meaning with object, although the two are not completely synonymous. The objects that verbs do and do not take is explored in detail in valency theory.
Contents
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1 Types of objects 2 Syntactic category 3 Identifying objects 4 Verb classes 5 Objects in sentence structure 6 See also 7 Notes 8 Literature 9 External links

Types of objects[edit]
Various object types are commonly acknowledged: direct, indirect, and prepositional. These object types are illustrated in the following table: Type Description Example

Direct object

Entity acted upon

Sam fed the dogs.

Indirect object

Entity indirectly affected by the action She sent him a present.

Prepositional object Object introduced by a preposition

She is waiting forTommy.

The descriptions "entity acted upon" and "entity indirectly affected by the action" are merely loose orientation points. Beyond basic examples like those provided in the table, these orientation points are not much help when the goal is to determine whether a given object should be viewed as direct or indirect.[6] One rule of thumb for English, however, is that an indirect object is not present unless a direct object is also present. The term prepositional object is of course much clearer, since the presence of a preposition reliably identifies such objects. Despite the difficulties with the traditional nomenclature, the terms direct object and indirect object are widespread. The term oblique object is also employed at times, although what exactly is meant varies from author to author. Some authors understand oblique object to be an umbrella term denoting all objects (direct, indirect, and prepositional), whereas other authors use the term to denote just a prepositional object.[7]

Syntactic category[edit]
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: Category Example

Noun (phrase) or pronoun The girl ate fruit.

that-clause

We remembered that we had to bring something.

Bare clause

We remembered we had to bring something.

for-clause

We were waiting for him to explain.

Interrogative clause

They asked what had happened.

Free relative clause

I heard what you heard.

Gerund (phrase or clause) He stopped asking questions.

to-infinitive

Sam attempted to leave.

Cataphoric it

I believe it that she said that.

Identifying objects[edit]
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. The object follows the subject. 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 isolating languages such as English, since the relatively strict word order of English usually positions the object after the verb(s) in declarative sentences. The third criterion is less applicable to English, though, since English lacks morphological case, exceptions being the personal pronouns (I/me, he/him, she/her, they/them). For languages that have case and thus freer word order, morphological case is the most readily available criterion for identifying objects. In Latin and related languages, direct objects are usually marked with the accusative case, and indirect objects with the dative case. Note as well that some objects are marked in telling ways in particular languages. In Spanish, for example, human objects have to be marked by the preposition a; the phenomenon is called differential object marking.

Verb classes[edit]