Please help me better understand the object of a sentence

Hi,

I'm trying to understand the object of a sentence for different sentences, I can understand a basic sentence's object fine..

"She hurled stones"
"We saw a baby"
"I heard a car"

... but what about the following sentences:

"She hurled stones at the crowd"
"We saw a baby sleeping"
"I heard a car driving on the road"

The above contains verbs as adjectives for the object (sleeping, driving) and prepositions (at the crowd, on the road). Below is my understanding of this but I may very well be wrong.

"She hurled stones at the crowd"

• The preposition is relevant to the verb in the sentence, not the object. So "stones" alone is the object

"We saw a baby sleeping"

• The word "sleeping" is relevant to the object. We didn't see a baby while we were sleeping right? lol

"I heard a car driving on the road"

• I didn't hear the car whilst I was driving, I heard the car driving. Also, the car was on the road, not me when I happened to hear it. So this time the verb (as adjective) and preposition is part of the object?

Anyway clarification on this would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Bizt

:hi: The key is the word 'complement' - that should get you started. But all this 'naming of parts' stuff, as you may come to learn and as the man said, 'ain't my cup o' meat' - so I'll leave it other teachers to give you chapter and verse.;-)

b

[QUOTE=bizt;847712]Hi,



"We saw a baby sleeping"

• The word "sleeping" is relevant to the object. We didn't see a baby while we were sleeping right? lol

"I heard a car driving on the road"

• I didn't hear the car whilst I was driving, I heard the car driving. Also, the car was on the road, not me when I happened to hear it. So this time the verb (as adjective) and preposition is part of the object?

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) I think that your first sentence is something like this:

We saw a baby. The baby was sleeping.

So we can say that "sleeping" describes the baby. As you said, "baby" is the

object. And "sleeping" describes the baby, so many books would call "sleeping"

an objective complement. As you know, "complement" means "to complete."

So the word "sleeping" completes the meaning of "baby."

(a) I found Tom eating. (Tom was eating, not I.)

(i) "eating" = a present participle.

(2) I most respectfully suggest that it sounds strange to say "I heard a car

driving on the road." I think that only a person can drive a car. I should suggest something like:

I heard a car coming/ roaring/ tearing down the street.

(a) And, again, maybe we could analyze "coming down the street" as an objective

complement:

(i) "coming" = a present participle.

(ii) "down the street" = prepositional phrase modifying (belonging to) "coming."

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bizt

Hi,

I'm trying to understand the object of a sentence for different sentences, I can understand a basic sentence's object fine..

"She hurled stones"
"We saw a baby"
"I heard a car"

... but what about the following sentences:

"She hurled stones at the crowd"
"We saw a baby sleeping"
"I heard a car driving on the road"

The above contains verbs as adjectives for the object (sleeping, driving) and prepositions (at the crowd, on the road). Below is my understanding of this but I may very well be wrong.

"She hurled stones at the crowd"

• The preposition is relevant to the verb in the sentence, not the object. So "stones" alone is the object

"We saw a baby sleeping"

• The word "sleeping" is relevant to the object. We didn't see a baby while we were sleeping right? lol

"I heard a car driving on the road"

• I didn't hear the car whilst I was driving, I heard the car driving. Also, the car was on the road, not me when I happened to hear it. So this time the verb (as adjective) and preposition is part of the object?

Anyway clarification on this would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Bizt

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Sentences, as such, do not have objects:only verbs or prepositions can be said to have objects. The object of a verb can be DIRECT or INDIRECT as, respectively, 'a letter' and 'him' in

I sent him a letter.

The object of a preposition (sometimes, if somewhat confusingly, termed its 'complement') is the noun or pronoun that it governs, e.g. 'the crowd' in your example 'at the crowd'.

Adjuncts to such object words (i.e. determiners or modifiers) are not themselves labelled objects but are simply dependent parts of the object phrase.