Direct Objects, Indirect Objects, Obliques, Dative Movement

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Ocelot  #354379  Mon, 23 Apr 07 09:01 AM
Can a clause have three different objects?

"Could you give the book to Mike for me?"           the book = direct object, Mike = indirect object, me = oblique object
Correct?

in "Mike gave the book to me"                               the book = direct object, me = indirect object, right?

however, in
"Mike pointed to my tooth"                                   is "my tooth" indirect object or oblique?    

in "Mike entered the house"                                  "the house" is direct object, but in
"We have entered upon a new phase in history"     "a new phase in history" is what? Oblique?
and in "Mike talked about me"                               is "me" oblique?

"I sent money to her."                                            "money" = direct object, "her" = indirect object, right? But

"I went to her."                                                      "her" is NOT indirect object, nor any other type of object, is it?

So is the Indirect Object always and only the noun phrase that "receives" the direct object of the clause, that is to say, is it the case that without a Direct Object the clause CANNOT have an Indirect Object either?

Someone on this forum said Dative Movement is the operation of moving the indirect object in front the direct object with deletion of 'to'. However, if my above assumptions are true, this would not be the whole truth, for:
in
"I caught a fish for the cat,"                                    "a fish" is Direct Object and "the cat" is Oblique, and in
"I caught the cat a fish"                                           the very same sentence seems to have undergone dative movement, and
                                                                             another such pair is

"They built a house for Harry" and
"They built Harry a house"

so this would suggest that Dative Movement can be used, with ditransitive verbs, not only to do away with 'to' and move the Indirect Object in front of the Direct Object, but also to delete 'for' and move the Oblique in front of the Direct Object. Do y'all agree?



  
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Doll  #354461  Mon, 23 Apr 07 01:38 PM
Could you give the book to Mike for me?"           the book = direct object,yes  Mike = indirect object,yes me = oblique object I haven't heard of it before.
Correct?

in "Mike gave the book to me"                               the book = direct object, me = indirect object, right? Yes.

however, in
"Mike pointed to my tooth"                                   is "my tooth" indirect object or oblique?   It is direct object I think. 

in "Mike entered the house"                                  "the house" is direct object, but in Yes.
"We have entered upon a new phase in history"     "a new phase in history" is what? Oblique? I would say it is predicator complement.
and in "Mike talked about me"                               is "me" oblique?sorry I don't know I would just say it is indirect object.

"I sent money to her."                                            "money" = direct object, "her" = indirect object, right? Yes.But

"I went to her."                                                      "her" is NOT indirect object, nor any other type of object, is it?Hmm I would say it is direct object.

So is the Indirect Object always and only the noun phrase that "receives" the direct object of the clause, that is to say, is it the case that without a Direct Object the clause CANNOT have an Indirect Object either?Yes I was taught so but I am sure there are exceptions.

Someone on this forum said Dative Movement is the operation of moving the indirect object in front the direct object with deletion of 'to'. However, if my above assumptions are true, this would not be the whole truth, for:
in
"I caught a fish for the cat,"                                    "a fish" is Direct Object and "the cat" is Oblique, and in
"I caught the cat a fish"                                           the very same sentence seems to have undergone dative movement, and
                                                                             another such pair is

"They built a house for Harry" and
"They built Harry a house"

so this would suggest that Dative Movement can be used, with ditransitive verbs, not only to do away with 'to' and move the Indirect Object in front of the Direct Object, but also to delete 'for' and move the Oblique in front of the Direct Object. Do y'all agree?  Sorry, I will not be able to do any comment on dative object.

  
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Anonymous  #354475  Mon, 23 Apr 07 02:03 PM

 Doll wrote:

"Mike pointed to my tooth"      is "my tooth" indirect object or oblique?   It is direct object I think. 

"I went to her."     "her" is NOT indirect object, nor any other type of object, is it? Hmm I would say it is direct object.

Let me disagree with the comments in pink.

To put it simply, a "direct object" 
- can only be the object of a transitive verb,
- answers the question "who?" or "what?"
- is not preceded by any preposition.
More on direct objects here: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/function/dirobj.htm

I would say that "my tooth" is a prepositional object (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_%28grammar%29).

  
Doll  #354543  Mon, 23 Apr 07 03:25 PM
Hmm, I didn't know anything about prepositional object before.Thanks for your information and what about I went to her?
  
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