luckycharmer
Member
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2012
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- English
- Home Country
- Great Britain
- Current Location
- Great Britain
I am trying to understand objects and am having multiple problems in doing so. I think that in order to understand anything, a good definition is vital, but I can't find a decent definition (ie one that you can't disprove with commonly occurring examples).
Most grammar books go with the "noun or noun equivalent that receives the action of the verb" definition but this has obvious problems, not least that terms like "her mother" in sentences such as
She resembles her mother
would not be classed as objects using this definition, even if we use it loosely, so we need a different one.
I have the Oxford dictionary of English grammar and it says that while objects are usually said to be "affected" by the verb (noting that "affected" must be interpreted loosely)the term (object) is essentially a syntactic rather than semantic one. It does not bother to give any syntactic definition though, having said this, rendering it not particularly useful. Sigh.
From looking at lists of verbs with their objects (direct, indirect and both), it would definitely appear that the common denominator is syntactic rather than semantic but I still can't work out what it is. Any syntactic definition I come up with doesn't exclude terms like "to France" in phrases like
She went to France
And I still don't really understand why the verb to go is usually classed as intransitive. If you look at the three sentences
how can you say that "her mother" is not just as much of an object in (2) as in (3)? And if so, how is it any different from "France" in (1).
Most grammar books go with the "noun or noun equivalent that receives the action of the verb" definition but this has obvious problems, not least that terms like "her mother" in sentences such as
She resembles her mother
would not be classed as objects using this definition, even if we use it loosely, so we need a different one.
I have the Oxford dictionary of English grammar and it says that while objects are usually said to be "affected" by the verb (noting that "affected" must be interpreted loosely)the term (object) is essentially a syntactic rather than semantic one. It does not bother to give any syntactic definition though, having said this, rendering it not particularly useful. Sigh.
From looking at lists of verbs with their objects (direct, indirect and both), it would definitely appear that the common denominator is syntactic rather than semantic but I still can't work out what it is. Any syntactic definition I come up with doesn't exclude terms like "to France" in phrases like
She went to France
And I still don't really understand why the verb to go is usually classed as intransitive. If you look at the three sentences
(1) She went to France
(2) She went to her mother
(3) She spoke to her mother
(2) She went to her mother
(3) She spoke to her mother
how can you say that "her mother" is not just as much of an object in (2) as in (3)? And if so, how is it any different from "France" in (1).