16. Indirect Objects and Objective Complements. Grammar

Yossarian the Grammarian lays bare the nature of the indirect object and the much less well known objective complement. English language and grammar.

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• english
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[regan4000]

Isn't "sing" in "He made me sing" a verb? I understand that it's an intransitive verb, but I thought you said only adjectives and nouns could be Object Complements?

[mrthoth]

@regan4000 "Sing" is not a verb here. A verb is something with a subject. But there is no subject of "sing". ("Me" cannot be a subject. One cannot say, "Me sing well.") "Sing" is an infinitive with the "to" elided. Infinitives are never verbs; they are either adjectives (He's the one to beat), adverbs (I work to make money), or nouns (I want to dance.) In this case, "sing" is an adjective modifying "me". The "me" in the sentence is described as singing; it is a singing me.

[saturdayjade]

Thank you! your lesson was awesome, i have a question, for the sentence "They called their daughter Sarah." is the indirect object daughter? and if it is, what is the direct object?

[mrthoth]

@saturdayjade The sentence can be read at least two ways. If the sentence means that they called out to her (e.g. for her to come to dinner), then the direct object is "daughter" and "Sarah" is an appositive. If it means that they named her Sarah, then "daughter" is still the direct object, but "Sarah" is an objective complement. "They named her Sarah" is similar to "They elected him president": The sequence in both is subject - verb - direct object - objective complement.

[hilerc]

what would "move" be in the sentence, "he helped me move"? would it be a simple adverb? I'm only confused because I think it complements "helped", but then again a complement has to be an adjective or noun, and which "helped is obviously neither. Thanks for the help.

[mrthoth]

@hilerc "Move" here is an infinitive with an "invisible" "to" ("he helped me to move"), and it is an objective complement--that is, it complements the object, "me". Verbs (like "helped") cannot be complemented. There are subjective complements ("He is GOOD") and objective complements ("He made me HAPPY"), but there is no such thing as a verb complement.

[regan4000]

@mrthoth I'm confused. In the sentence "They will be here shortly", the modal 'will' is followed by the infinitive form of the verb 'be'. Doesn't that make 'will' the auxiliary verb and 'be' the lexical verb?

[saturdayjade]

@mrthoth Thank you so much, I understand now, you're the best!

[MrJordanFlores]

Thank you so much!! I am enrolled in a prestigious military school (so I know how Drill Sergeant's make men out of civilians lol) and our professor taught this lesson in about 10 minutes and our test is tomorrow. You're teaching style is very hard to forget. I appreciate your logical phrases such as: "Well no, that wouldn't make sense. 'He didn't make a man' " Because it helps me understand what you mean. Thank you for your assistance.

[MindtoEye]

Hi, great video as usual! Kind of curious, what is the relation between objective complement and an oblique (if there is any)

[VPCyd]

Great !