The Object
The Object is a secondary part of the sentence expressed by a verb, a noun, a substantival pronoun, an adjective, a numeral, or an adverb, and denoting a thing to which the action passes on, which is a result of the action, in reference to which an action is committed or a property is manifested, or denoting an action as object of another action.
Objects differ form one another
- by their morphological composition, by the parts of speech or phrases which perform the function of object
- by the type of their relation to the action expressed by the verb (direct/indirect)
Classification of object:
- Prepositional and non-prepositional objects
- Morphological types (noun, pronoun, substantivized adjective, infinitive, gerund)
- Direct/indirect, is applied only to objects expressed by nouns or pronouns. There are sentences in which the predicate is expressed by the verbs send, show, lend, give. These verbs usually take 2 different kinds of objects simultaneously: (1) an object expressing the thing which is sent, shown, lent, given, etc. (2) the person or persons to whom the thing is sent, shown, lent, given, etc. The difference between the 2 relations is clear enough: the direct object denotes the thing immediately affected by the action denoted by the predicate verb, whereas the indirect object expresses the person towards whom the thing is moved, e.g. We sent them a present. The indirect object stands 1st, the direct object comes after it.
In studying different kinds of objects it is also essential to take into account the possibility of the corresponding passive construction.
The Adverbial Modifier.
The term ‘adverbial modifier’ cannot be said to be a very lucky one, as it is apt to convey erroneous (wrong, incorrect) ideas about the essence of this secondary part. They have nothing to do with adverbs and they modify not only verbs.
There are several ways of classifying adverbial modifiers:
- According to their meaning – not a grammatical classification. However it may acquire some grammatical significance.
- According to their morphological peculiarities – according to the parts of speech and to the phrase patterns. It has also something to do with word order, and stands in a certain relation to the classification according to meaning.adverb,preposition + noun,a noun without a preposition,infinitive or an infinitive phrase
- According to the type of their head-word – is the syntactic classification proper. The meaning of the word (phrase) acting as modifier should be compatible with the meaning of the head-word.
Adverbial modifier of:
- Time and frequency,
- Place and direction,
- Manner and attendant
- circumstances,
- Cause,
- Purpose,
- Result,
- Condition,
- Concession,
- Degree
The attribute
The problem of the attribute.The attribute is a secondary part of the sentence modifying a part of the sentence expressed by a noun, a substantivized pronoun, a cardinal numeral, and any substantivized word, and characterizing the thing named by these words as to its quality or property.
The attribute can either precede or follow the noun it modifies. Accordingly we use terms prepositive and postpositive attribute. The position of an attribute with respect to its head-word depends partly on the morphological peculiarities of the attribute itself, and partly on stylistic factors.
The size of the prepositive attributive phrase can be large in ME. Whatever is included between the article and the noun, is apprehended as an attribute.
Apposition
Apposition – a word or a phrase referring to a part of the sentence expressed by a noun, and giving some other designation to the person or thing named by that noun, e.g. For a moment, Melanie thought how nice Captain Butler was.
??? Is it a part of the sentence or a phrase?
Parenthesis
Parenthesis – words and phrases which have no syntactical ties with the sentence, and express the speaker’s attitude towards what he says, a general assessment of the statement, or an indication of its sources, its connection with other statements, or with a wider context in speech.
Extensions
Хаймович, Роговская: Extensions – adjuncts of adjectives, adverbs and adlinks in a sentence. They differ from complements and attributes in being usually modifiers of modifiers, or tertiaries (Jespersen), e.g. The creature’s eyes were alight with a somber frenzy.
Connectives
Connectives – linking-words considered as a secondary aprt of the sentence. They are mostly prepositions and conjunctions, e.g. She played and sang to him. They usually connect 2 words both or neither of which might be regarded as their head-words. The words they connect belong to various parts of speech.
Specifiers
Specifiers – not adjuncts of definite parts of speech like complements, attributes or extensions. They do not link any part of the sentence like connectives. They are not parenthetical elements. So they make a distinct secondary part of the sentence. The name just indicates the function, e.g. I was only brilliant once.
