Transcript English 402: Grammar

The Transitive
Verb Patterns
Ed McCorduck
English 402--Grammar
SUNY Cortland
http://mccorduck.cortland.edu
slide 2: transitive vs. intransitive verbs
recall:
intransitive:
• does not take an object (traditional grammar definition)
• does not require a direct object or a complement
(descriptive grammar definition)
ergo,
transitive:
• takes an object (traditional grammar definition)
• requires a direct object (descriptive grammar definition)
English 402: Grammar
slide 3: Pattern VII
Pattern VII
•
•
NP1
V-tr
NP2
(subj)
(pred vb)
(dir obj)
“dir obj” is direct object
direct object: entity (usually) directly affected by the
action of a transitive verb
English 402: Grammar
slide 4: examples of Pattern VII sentences
exx
The man | kissed | the woman.
NP1
V-tr
NP2
I
| baked | a cake.
NP1 V-tr
NP2
The airline | flies | big jets.
NP1
V-tr
NP2
(Note that in this last example the airline really doesn’t “do”
anything to or affect the jets in any way, but this sentence is
still classified as a Pattern VII sentence with a transitive verb.)
English 402: Grammar
slide 5: Reed-Kellogg diagram of a Pattern VII sentence
In Reed-Kellogg diagrams, the headword of a noun
phrase that functions as the direct object is placed on
the main line after the verb and separated from it from a
vertical line which, unlike the vertical line separating a
sentence’s subject from its predicate, does not bisect the
main line but remains perpendicular to it. To illustrate,
here is the diagram of the Pattern VII sentence I baked a
cake in which the headword of the direct object cake is
separated from the verb baked by a vertical line:
English 402: Grammar
slide 6: Pattern VIII
Pattern VIII
•
•
NP1
V-tr
NP2
NP3
(subj)
(pred vb) (indir obj) (dir obj)
“indir obj” is indirect object
indirect object: (normally animate) entity that is indirectly
affected the action of the verb, i.e., the “recipient” or
“beneficiary” of the action
English 402: Grammar
slide 7: examples of Pattern VIII sentences
exx
He | sent | the IRS | a nasty note.
NP1
V-tr
NP2
NP3
He | cooked | her husband | a hearty meal.
NP1
V-tr
NP2
NP3
English 402: Grammar
slide 8: verbs occurring both Pattern VII and Pattern VIII sentences
Most transitive verbs that can be used in Pattern VIII
sentences can also appear in Pattern VII sentences (but
the reverse is generally not true):
He sent the IRS a nasty note.
V-tr
dir obj
He sent a nasty note.
She cooked her husband a hearty meal.
V-tr
dir obj
She cooked a hearty meal.
She cooked her husband.
dir obj
English 402: Grammar
slide 9: alternate Pattern VIII sentences with PPs
Instead of requiring a structure in which the indirect
object precedes the direct object, many verbs occurring
in Pattern VIII sentences can enter into alternate
structures where the direct object comes before the
indirect object which actually becomes the noun phrase
in a prepositional phrased headed usually by to or for.
For example, the sentence He sent the IRS a nasty note
can be “transformed” into He sent a nasty note to the IRS,
and the relationship between these two sentences is
schematized below:
He sent the IRS
a nasty note.
indir obj
dir obj
He sent a nasty note to the IRS.
dir obj
indir obj
English 402: Grammar
slide 10: Reed-Kellogg diagrams of alternate Pattern VIII sentences with PPs
Knowing about these alternate forms of Pattern VIII
sentences can actually help us understand the reasons
that Reed-Kellogg diagrams for sentences of this pattern
are drawn they ways they are. Take our first example set;
if we diagram the second variant He sent a nasty note to
the IRS, the diagram will be as follows:
English 402: Grammar
slide 11: Reed-Kellogg diagrams of PP-less Pattern VIII sentences
The diagram of He sent the IRS a nasty note is exactly
the same in that the indirect object the IRS is indicated
as a prepositional phrase under the main verb sent with
the only but important difference that since the
preposition to is not used in this structure where the
indirect object the IRS precedes the direct object a nasty
note, it is omitted from the diagram:
English 402: Grammar
slide 12: Reed-Kellogg diagram of an alternate Pattern VIII sentence with a PP headed by for
Similarly, if the diagram of She made a hearty meal for
her husband is examined first,
English 402: Grammar
slide 13: another Reed-Kellogg diagram of a PP-less Pattern VIII sentence
the diagram of She made her husband a hearty meal
falls out from it:
English 402: Grammar