Stephen van Vlack

Sookmyung Women`s University

Graduate School of TESOL

Approaches to English Grammar

Spring 2005

Notes and Comments on Yule Chapter 7: Indirect Objects

     In this unit Yule takes the bull by the horns and integrates many different types of explanation into his treatment of indirect objects. While it sounds complex, his integration of word origins, pronunciation, and meanings creates a clear picture that helps us figure out how indirect objects work in English.

     Yule starts out by presenting the problem. The indirect in English can be found either directly following the verb (before the D.O.), or following a preposition (after the D.O.).

E.G. My friend sent me a letter. D.O. = ___, I.O. =

E.G. My friend sent a letter to me. D.O. = ___, I.O. =

He tells us that there are three basic types of verbs in English in respect to the placement of indirect objects. Some verbs (1) can place the I.O. in either position. Other verbs (2) only allow the I.O. to be placed after a preposition, and still others (3) only allow the I.O. to be placed after the verb. The reasons for this, according to Yule, are less than haphazard. I order to figure this out we need to look at several levels.

Level 1 - Word Origin, Syllable Stress

•   Verbs that derive for Old English will use either the after verb or after preposition construction.

•   Verbs that derive from Latin will use the after the preposition construction.

Old English verbs are easy to tell apart form Latin verbs because they are usually shorter and if there is more than one syllable, the stress falls on the first syllable. Latin verbs, on the other hand are usually more than one syllable and the stress falls on the second syllable.

     This difference lets us understand the difference between type 1 and 2 verbs. What we must figure out now is how to differentiate between different patterns in type 1 verbs and type 3 verbs.

Level 2 - Meanings

There are five basic meaning structures that are used in association with indirect objects.

•   A Transferring

     This meaning is found with some #1 type verbs. In these sentences, the D.O. is treated as a transferred object and the I.O. is the goal and location of that transfer.

E.G. The baby bear threw the porcupine to the mamma bear.

•   B Having

     This meaning is found with some #1 type verbs. In these sentences, the D.O. is still a transferred object, but the I.O. is not just the goal, but also the possessor of that object. Possessors are usually animate.

E.G. The baby bear threw the momma bear the porcupine.

•   C Negative Transfer

     This meaning is found in some #3 type verbs. In these sentences, there is an implied transfer of the D.O. away from the I.O.

E.G. The bear attacks cost taxpayers over a million dollars last year.

•   D Transferring External Benefit

     This meaning is found in some #1 type verbs. In these sentences, the D.O. is an obtained entity and the I.O. is the goal which benefits from receiving that object.

E.G. I made a chocolate cake for Michael.

•   E Having External Benefit

     This meaning is found in some #1 type verbs. In these sentences, the D.O. is an obtained entity, but the I.O. is a beneficiary and a possessor. Possessors are usually animate.

E.G. The door man got them a discount.

Level 3 - Information Structure

     According to the rules of discourse structure, given information comes before new information. This has repercussions on where we place indirect objects. This means that if an I.O. is placed directly after the verb, it is probably old information. If the I.O. comes after a preposition, then it is probably new information. Based on this, we can write up a description of indirect objects based on where they appear in the sentence.

After-Verb I.O.               After-Prep, I.O.

shorter                          longer

definite                         indefinite

pronoun                        full NP

Level 4 - End Weight

The tendency in English is for the longer (heavier) units of the sentence to come last in the sentence. Weight is shifted to the end. What this means for us in relation to the placing of indirect objects is that a heavy (long) indirect object will be moved to the after-prep. position even if it is old information.

E.G. What did you do for the man?

      I gave a cookie to the man who bought me lunch yesterday.

If the D.O. is heavier than it will be moved to the last position in the sentence (following the I.O.).

E.G. Henry gave a man the big brown ball with blue dots all over it.

To sum up what we have so far; ̋When the referent of an indirect object is treated as given information, denotes a human, and comes into possession of some entity, there is a powerful tendency to place that indirect object in the after-verb position. When the referent is new information and represents the goal of an act of transfer, the indirect object will typically occur in the after prep. position.̋ (Brown 1998, p.200)

Linguistic Distance

     When the I.O. is placed after the preposition there is much more linguistic distance between the verb and the receiver (recipient/beneficiary) of the action. If the I.O. is in the after-verb position the distance is much less. We could argue that diminished distance indicates a conceptual closeness that is generally reserved for animate objects. The idea of linguistic distance, thus, backs up what we already said before and proves our argument to be true.