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Subjects Ans Objects
Subjects Ans Objects
A subject is one of the five major elements of clause structure. The other four are: verb, object, complement and
adjunct. Subjects are essential in declarative, negative and interrogative clauses.
The subject acts as the ‘doer’ or agent of an action. Subjects are typically noun phrases (e.g. a noun or pronoun and any
dependent words before or after it):
Examples of the work of the four artists will be in an exhibition at the Tate Gallery from Nov 4–29. (noun + prepositional
phrase)
Subject position
In questions (interrogative clauses), the subject comes after the auxiliary or modal verb and before the main verb:
Has Shona been to the house before? (auxiliary + subject + verb + other elements)
In exclamations, the subject comes after How or What and before the verb:
Dummy subjects
The subject is an essential part of a clause. Sometimes we need to use a ‘dummy’ subject where there is no other
subject to put in the subject position. We use it or there as subjects:
Spoken English:
In very informal speaking we can leave out the pronoun in declarative clauses (statements), particularly I with verbs
like hope and know:
A:
B:
A:
B:
Objects
An object is one of the five major elements of clause structure. The other four are subject, verb, adjunct and
complement.
Objects are typically noun phrases (a noun or pronoun and any dependent words before or after it). Objects normally
follow the verb in a clause:
Everyone likes her. She knows everyone.
A:
B:
There are direct objects and indirect objects. A direct object (in bold) is the thing or person that is affected by the action
of the verb. An indirect object (underlined) is usually a person (or animal) who receives a direct object:
Direct objects
A direct object shows who or what the action of the verb affects:
Indirect objects
An indirect object is usually a person or an animal. The indirect object (underlined) receives or is affected by the direct
object (in bold). An indirect object always needs a direct object with it and always comes before the direct object:
We can often rephrase such sentences with a prepositional phrase using to or for + the recipient. In this case, the direct
object usually comes first.
Compare
indirect + direct object direct object + prepositional phrase with to/for
He always gives the class too much homework. He always gives too much homework to the class.
I never buy her flowers. She’s allergic to them. I never buy flowers for her. She’s allergic to them.
Here are some verbs that often take an indirect object + direct object or a prepositional phrase with to:
Here are some verbs that often take an indirect object + direct object or a prepositional phrase with for:
Some verbs (often called transitive verbs) need an object to complete their meaning. Some verbs (often called
intransitive verbs) do not take an object. Some verbs need both a direct object and an indirect object. Some verbs can
take a wh-clause or a that-clause as an object.
All prepositional verbs (underlined below) take an object after the preposition:
We don’t use objects with linking verbs (appear, be, become, look, seem, etc.). We use adjective phrases, noun phrases,
adverb phrases or prepositional phrases as subject complements (underlined below), to give more information about
the subject: