Search results for 'tag:Phrasal verbs tag:Indirect objects' matching tags 'Phrasal verbs' and 'Indirect objects'

Re: Is by an adverb or a preposition in "laid by"?

Aperisic — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 10:03:01 GMT

Grammarian-bot wrote:
A website says that "by" in the following sentence is an adverb.

1. The farmer laid by his crops.

But if we analyze, we can see that the word "by" answers the question "what" which makes it a preposition. Also the website says that "crops" directyly receives the action of the farmer and is the direct object of the verb "laid". If it is so then isn't "a small lake" in the following sentence also a direct object of the verb. But here the word "upon" is preposition and "small lake" is its object [indirect object of the verb].

2. We came upon a small lake.

Please clarify this problem.

GB

"by" in The farmer laid by his crops at first glance means "next to", "near" so it is a preposition. There is a variant when "by" is an adverb here, but that would mean that there is the farmer who laid and that was done by his crops, as if his crops knocked him down :o) or more realistic make him sleepy after a lot of work. If that is so the example is not well chosen, it is too poetic, because we should have a continuation like The farmer (who was) laid by his crops suddenly woke up.

In either case "crops" is not a direct object.

However!!! If we understood lay by as a phrasal verb then and only then "by" is an adverb. "Lay by" means "set/lay aside". "Lay by" is very rare, so I could say that looking "lay by" in The farmer laid by his crops to mean "set aside" is more a trick than a real explanation. Not only that "lay by" as "set aside" is rare, it is far more used this way

The farmer laid his crops by.

For example you can say The farmer laid by his crops. but if "lay by" means "set aside" you say The farmer laid it/me/him by. not The farmer laid by it/me/him.

The farmer laid by it/me/him can only mean he sat down close to it/me/him.

In this case "crops" is a direct object.

Simple rules

if "by" is an adverb you test it when you replace "by" with "using" or "by means of"
if "by" is a preposition you test it when you replace "by" with "next to" or "near" "close"
check phrasal verbs with "by" as well

We came upon a small lake.
"upon" is a preposition, because "upon" is always a preposition :o)

Re: Parse this sentence.

rvw — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 13:20:06 GMT

She glorified God by giving back to Him the very thing He desired.

She: subject
glorified: verb
God: direct object
by giving back to Him the very thing He desired: prepositional phrase, which modifies glorified
giving back: gerund (noun) from the phrasal verb to give back, which means to return
to Him: prepositional phrase which modifies giving back. (Him would be the indirect object if to were omitted and the phrasing were by giving Him back....)
the very thing He desired: the direct object of giving back

Re: Prepositional Object, Complement of Preposition and other confusing stuff.

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 02:54:27 GMT

MichalS wrote:
Hi, I'm a new member on the forum. My name's Michal and I'm from Poland.

I've been learning descriptive grammar of Enlgish lately. Reading LONGMAN Grammar of Spoken and Written English, I've come across a couple of problems which are hard for me to overcome. I hope that you will help me with that

A lot of my doubts arose after reading a short passage about Prepositional Objects in the book mentioned above. I'll quote it so you know better what I'm refering to.

"(...) Prepositional objects and indirect objects are alike in that they require a mediating element (a preposition or a direct object). The correspondence is particularly close with indirect objects and corresponding prepositional construction:

Indirect object
He [gave] Carrie a ring.
Prepositional object
Mr Evans [gave] it [to] me.

To stress the correspondence, it may be convenient the use the term oblique object (...)"

And here are my questions:
1) Does Prepositional Object always follow a Prepositional Verb or does it appear in other contexts? And what follows a Phrasal Verb?
2) What's the difference between Prepositional Object and Complement of a Preposition and which one is called 'Oblique Object'?
3) I always thought that Indirect Object stays an object in passive but the passage above shows that it becomes Prepositional Object in this case... Or maybe I just get it wrong???

Please, answer to these questions if you can because these things are haunting me all the time.
Thank you,
Michal

Re: The Indirect and Prepositional Objects

Mister Micawber — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 14:47:50 GMT

Hello Ruslana,

To me, the only possible one is B. I think that we are evolving away from indirect objects; the existence of so many phrasal verbs and the more efficient communication using the prepositional object favour the use of the latter.

Re: Prepositional Object, Complement of Preposition and other confusing stu

CalifJim — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 02:24:09 GMT

Welcome to English Forums!

It would be better if someone familiar with the Longman book responded to your question. I am not familiar with that book. Nevertheless, I will try to answer your questions.

1. An object of a preposition always follows a prepositional verb, yes. A prepositional verb is a combination of verb and preposition. The preposition is followed by its object. However, an object of a preposition does not only follow a prepositional verb. Prepositional phrases, that is, preposition and noun, can be found in other locations within a sentence. If the phrasal verb is intransitive, nothing need follow it. If it is transitive its direct object follows.

2. I believe that "Object of a Preposition" and "Complement of a Preposition" are simply two different terms which mean the same thing. According to the quote you provided from your book, the entity referred to by both of those terms would be an oblique object.

3. Neither example given is passive, so I'm uncertain what you are asking regarding the passive.

In my opinion, the standard terminology says that there are direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of prepositions. The object of the preposition "to" can be an indirect object and an object of a preposition at the same time. Otherwise the three categories are mutually exclusive.

Paul won the prize. ("the prize" is a direct object.)
Paul gave Mary the letter. ("Mary" is an indirect object. "letter" is a direct object.)
Paul gave the letter to Mary. ("Mary" is the object of the preposition "to" and is an indirect object. "letter" is again a direct object.)
Paul traveled to Italy. ("Italy" is the object of the preposition "to" but is not an indirect object.)
The man with the black hat drove his car into the garage. ("hat" is the object of the preposition "with". "garage" is the object of the preposition "into". "car" is a direct object. Note that "with the black hat" has an object of a preposition, but it is not positioned after a verb.)

I believe Longman wants to classify these different kinds of objects differently. He wants only two categories: direct objects (with the same definition as seen in the examples above), and oblique objects (any other kind of object).

CJ

Prepositional Object, Complement of Preposition and other confusing stuff.

MichalS — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 17:24:18 GMT

Hi, I'm a new member on the forum. My name's Michal and I'm from Poland.

I've been learning descriptive grammar of Enlgish lately. Reading LONGMAN Grammar of Spoken and Written English, I've come across a couple of problems which are hard for me to overcome. I hope that you will help me with that

A lot of my doubts arose after reading a short passage about Prepositional Objects in the book mentioned above. I'll quote it so you know better what I'm refering to.

"(...) Prepositional objects and indirect objects are alike in that they require a mediating element (a preposition or a direct object). The correspondence is particularly close with indirect objects and corresponding prepositional construction:

Indirect object
He [gave] Carrie a ring.
Prepositional object
Mr Evans [gave] it [to] me.

To stress the correspondence, it may be convenient the use the term oblique object (...)"

And here are my questions:
1) Does Prepositional Object always follow a Prepositional Verb or does it appear in other contexts? And what follows a Phrasal Verb?
2) What's the difference between Prepositional Object and Complement of a Preposition and which one is called 'Oblique Object'?
3) I always thought that Indirect Object stays an object in passive but the passage above shows that it becomes Prepositional Object in this case... Or maybe I just get it wrong???

Please, answer to these questions if you can because these things are haunting me all the time.
Thank you,
Michal

Re: Another doubt

CalifJim — Tue, 22 Feb 2005 02:34:59 GMT

"We'll send you them back" is not a particularly felicitous construction!

For the most idiomatic patterns, you'll need one of these:

We send the letter to John.
We send John the letter.

We send it to John.
(Not: We send John it.)

We send the letter to him.
We send him the letter.

We send it to him.
(Not: We send him it.)

We send the letter back to John.

We send it back to John.

We send the letter back to him.

We send it back to him.

I think this amounts to saying that when the direct object is pronomialized it must occur before the indirect object, which must then be expressed in a "to"-phrase, and if a phrasal verb (like "send back") is involved, the particle ("back") must occur before the "to"-phrase which introduces the indirect object.

Others: I'll bring it down to him. NOT: I'll bring him it down. NOR I'll bring down it to him. ETC.

Does that sound right?