Predicates

 The predicate is typically the structure that

follows the subject.

NP VP
 The English predicate must contain a verb; it
can contain other structures:
a direct object, an indirect object, various
complement structures, and adverbs
 What does it depend on if the sentence will
have any of the constituents mentioned
above?
 There are different types of verbs. What are
they?
 like - Diana likes the woods.
 put - She put the book on the shelf; *She put
the book; *She put on the shelf.
 laugh - Elaine laughed.
 What is the prototypical English sentence?
subject + verb + direct object
 Verbs that can be followed by direct objects are
considered transitive because, in most cases, an action
taken by the subject is transmitted to the object. As a
rule, only transitive verbs can be followed by direct
objects.
 A direct object is a noun phrase that follows a verb and
is often (but not always) affected by the action of verb.
Lisa wrecked her bike.
The fire damaged the bedroom.
Bob washed the dishes.
Eugene read a novel.
The baby likes those cookies.
 What is the difference between grammatical
and semantic roles?
 Like subjects, direct objects reflect various
semantic roles. Traditional school grammars
often describe the direct object as the
"receiver of the action," that is one of its
primary roles.
 But the direct object reflects a variety of
other semantic relationships as well
Dr. Frankenstein slapped the monster
Dr. Frankenstein created the monster
Dr. Frankenstein scared the monster.
 Patients are always affected by the action of
the verb (to a greater or lesser degree). In
fact, direct objects are so named because
they are the direct target or object of the
verb's action.
Jill smashed my car.
Dorothy threw her coat on the floor.
Timothy folded the clothes.
The plaintiff destroyed the evidence.
Maezel lifted the box.
 Subjects can also take the semantic role of patient.
The vase fell.
The plants died.
The door opened.
 But in a given simple sentence there can be only one
patient role. If the sentence contains a direct
object, it, not the subject, will be the patient.
 Patient will also be our default (garbage can)
category. We will consider any direct object that
cannot be comfortably placed in another semantic
category a patient. This means that even relatively
unaffected direct objects will be considered patients,
as in:
Kim read the novel
 Annie annoyed her siblings. [It doesn't matter
whether she did it deliberately or not.]
Dad calmed the baby.
Lester frightened me.
That novel bothered my students.
The vandalism saddened everyone.

 Direct objects can be experiencers if the verb

causes the direct object to achieve a new
psychological state. In a sense, experiencer is a
subcategory of patient in that the direct object
is affected by the action of the verb in a very
particular way.
 A direct object can be an experiencer only
when the subject is not. There can be only
one experiencer in a simple sentence. When
the subject of a verb is an experiencer, the
direct object is relatively unaffected by the
action of the verb. It is a patient.
I love movies.
Libby believed their lies.
Captain Ahab fears that whale.
We hate violence.
Carmen craves chocolate.
I smell smoke.
 Bell invented the telephone
My daughter built a tree house
 How is the following sentence ambiguous?
Maria paints barns.

Patient direct object Created direct object

 Agatha lost my novel. Agatha has written a novel.
 Margaret tore her blouse. Margaret made a blouse.
 Lynn is painting the ceiling. Lynn is painting a
landscape.
 The kids broke the statue. The kids are carving a
statue.
 Teddy fixed the bike. Teddy fixed lunch.
 Sometimes noun phrases expressing location are used as
direct objects.
Sir Edmund climbed Mt. Everest.
Diana swam the English Channel.
I have hiked the Grand Canyon.

 location expressions are usually prepositional phrases

functioning as adverbs—Sir Edmund climbed up Mt.
Everest; I have hiked in the Grand Canyon.
 Sir Edmund climbed Mt. Everest suggests that Sir
Edmund climbed all the way up to the top
 I have hiked the Grand Canyon suggests that I have
walked its entire length.
 In some highly idiomatic expressions, empty
it occurs as a direct object:
Let's call it a day, Sue has it made, and They
are living it up
 Occasionally a normally intransitive weather
verb will take an object—It was hailing golf
balls; It was raining buckets.
 All these constructions, are very idiomatic.
Summary of Direct Object Semantic Roles
Patient direct object The kids are smashing the
furniture.
Becky fixed my car.
Experiencer direct object Isabella scared me.
That movie
disgusted my parents.
Created direct object That firm manufactures
computers.
My aunt made a pie.
Locative direct object Michelle swam Lake
Powell.
He walks the streets.
Empty it direct object Maggie is living it up.
1) Patient direct a) Semantically empty direct object
object b) NP which is affected by the action of
2) Experiencer the verb
direct object c) Animate NP that has a non-volitional
3) Created direct sensory and psychological
object experience
4) Locative direct d) Direct object NP that expresses a
object location
5) Empty it e) Direct object that is actually brought
into existence by the actions of the
subject
1. I have created a monster.
2. The storm frightened the girl.
3. Michael smashed his car.
4. He has written a new novel.
5. He swam the Atlantic.
6. This factory manufactures car parts.
7. Meryl Streep fascinated me.
8. My mum fixed us lunch.
9. My dad fixed the radio.
10. Bell invented the telephone.
11. Bob climbed Mt.Blanc.
12. She is living it up.
 The term transitive really refers to a verb's potential. Any
verb that can potentially take a direct object can be
considered transitive. Transitive verbs can sometimes
occur without an overt direct object, although there is
almost always an unexpressed, covert direct object, one
that is somehow understood.
Fred ate, Martha is studying, The children are reading

 bake, hunt, iron

 Wayne is hunting / Wayne is hunting for his shoes.

(something else than game)
 drink - Tina drinks.
 Transitive verbs that are closely related semantically often
behave differently in terms of their need to express an
overt direct object.
eat, devour, gobble
*Fred devoured and *The child gobbled are
ungrammatical.
 There are a few transitive verbs in English
that carry little information and depend on
the rest of the predicate to provide meaning,
i.e. they have meaning only in the context of
the direct object.
The verb do:
Lana did her homework.
Alan did the dishes.
My sister does my taxes.
In fact, to do constitutes a kind of shorthand
in these contexts:
- in the first sentence, it includes all the
activities that might be involved in working
on homework;
- in the second sentence it probably involves
the acts of both washing and drying;
- in the third it includes a variety of
accounting activities.
 Speakers can use do to create novel
expressions.

Let's do lunch.
We don’t do those shirts any more.
 take have
1. The baby took a nap. 1. Judy had a nap.
2. Asher is taking a walk. 2. They had a fight.
3. He took his leave. 3. We had dinner at eight.
4. She is taking a shower 4. They had a chat.
5. Let's take a swim. 5. They are having a
6. Nan took a drink of meeting.
water. 6. The child had a good cry.
7. He took a glance at the 7. Michael had a smoke.
note. 8. Maxine had a look at the
8. Holyfield took a swing at results
Tyson.
 Paraphrased with a single verb: The baby
napped; Asher is walking; They are fighting;
They chatted.
 What is the difference in meaning:
Michael had a smoke / Michael smoked
Having a chat / chatting (time bounding: one
cigarette, a short event: an ongoing activity)
 What is the function of the article “a”?
 Doug is shaving / Doug is having a shave
(himself; by someone else)
 Timmy is having a haircut
 Transitive verbs may take agent, instrument,
causer, and experiencer subjects, but not
with patient subjects and empty it.
 traditional definition of transitivity
 transitivity is a continuum depending on the
“agentiveness” of the subject and how
affected the direct object is. Eg.
• Cameron smashed the truck.
• Nikki read a comic book.
• The baby likes cookies.
The intransitive verb is not followed by a
direct object (or an indirect object),
although it is often followed by adverbs that
express time or place.
Lisa fell. Mindy is fishing.
Tom is sleeping.
Scott sneezed.
All the relatives sat in the parlor.
They traveled for days.
 cognate direct objects - some verbs that are
normally intransitive will take a direct object
if that direct object restates the verb
She dreamed a wonderful dream;
He slept the sleep of the dead;
They talk the talk.
 run is normally intransitive, but it can take
the noun race as an object: Florence ran a
race.
 Not surprisingly then, run can also take as its
direct object any noun phrase that refers to
a particular race or type of race: Florence
ran a marathon/the 500 meter/the Bay to
Breakers.
 sing takes as its object any noun phrase that
refers to a particular type of song—Matt sang
a ballad/a blues number/a spiritual/an aria.
 Often a transitive verb with an agent subject will
have an identical intransitive counterpart that of
necessity takes a patient subject.
Yoko emptied the bathtub. The bathtub
emptied.
The alarm cleared the room. The room cleared.
Hester dimmed the lights. The lights dimmed.
The cook thickened the soup. The soup
thickened.
Orson opened the door. The door opened.
 A few very old transitive verbs have a
separate intransitive form which is related to
the transitive form but is not identical to it:
to fell/to fall; to set/to sit; to lay/to lie.
 fell – regular; fall-fell-fallen
 set-set-setting; sit-sat-sat-sitting
 lay-laid-laid; lie-lay-lain-lying
Transitive Intransitive
Present tense Present tense
Marsha lays the book on the table. The book lies on
the table.
Merle sets the glass on the shelf. The glass sits on
the shelf.
The woodsman fells the tree. The tree falls.

Past tense Past tense

Marsha laid the book on the table. The book lay on
the table.
Merle set the glass on a shelf. The glass sat on the
shelf.
The woodsman felled the tree. The tree fell.
 Some verbs can have two objects: indirect object and
direct object. They are both structures within the
predicate.

subject predicate
[I] [gave [Marian] [my dictionary]]
indirect direct
object object

subject predicate
[Gene] [sold [a friend] [his condo]]
indirect direct
object object
 Grammatically, a recipient can occupy one of
two positions:
 after the verb but before the direct object -
I gave my brother some money. (NP)
 after the direct object - I gave some money
to my brother. (PP)
 to - I gave the book to Joanie; I read a story
to the kids
 for - I made a shirt for my son; I fixed lunch
for my girlfriend.
 I wished my opponent luck.
 The Dean accorded Al a hearing.
 They refused the refugees aid.
 I spared Meg the details.
 We charged the vendor a lot.

 ?I wished luck to my opponent.

 *The Dean accorded a hearing to Al.
 ?They refused aid to the refugees.
 *I spared the details to Meg.
 ??We charged a lot to the vendor.
There are also a significant number of
recipients that can be comfortably expressed
only by means of a prepositional phrase.
She donated some money to the museum.
Jackie whispered the answer to Raimund.
Al contributed some money to the poor.

?? She donated the museum some money.

??Jackie whispered Raimund the answer.
*Al contributed the poor some money.
 Penny returned the bicycle to Kyle.
 The boy surrendered the gun to the police.
 The shop delivered the lamps to my mother
 I explained the problem to the Dean.

 *Penny returned Kyle the bicycle.

 *The boy surrendered the police the gun.
 ??The shop delivered my mother the lamps.
 *I explained the Dean the problem.
 *He explained me the answer.
 What might be the reason for this confusion?
 The Old English vs. Norman French
 Dative case vs. use of preposition
 Most of the verbs that take only prepositional
indirect objects came into the language after
the Norman invasion, e.g., donate, report,
explain, and most of the verbs that take NP
indirect objects date back to Old English,
e.g., give, feed, sell, bring, tell, buy
 Semantically related verbs: give, donate,
and contribute
 However: She guaranteed Nick a spot, He
bequeathed us a fortune, and Carmela faxed
Alex a memo.
 But: He told me, He said to me.
 when the subject has created something to
give the indirect object
 In which of these sentences can the object of
the preposition for be moved to occupy the
position before the direct object?
Leah raked the yard for the guests.
Jorge changed the sheets for neighbors.
Fritz hung the picture for his father.
Kirby cleaned the car for Bert.
I trimmed the trees for Yvette
I mailed a package for Helen.
 How are the following sentences different:

I mailed a package for Helen.

I mailed Helen a package.

Martha wrote a letter to her boss

Martha wrote a letter for her boss

- on someone’s behalf
 In a benefactive construction,
the beneficiary doesn't receive
the direct object, but rather
benefits from some action
involving the direct object.

 Almost any transitive sentence

with an agentive subject can be
turned into a benefactive.
 Lourdes fixed lunch for the kids.
Lourdes fixed the computer for Jay.
 Stuart made a sandwich for Joyce.
He made the bed for my mother.
 I built a birdhouse for Samantha.
I painted the birdhouse for Samantha.
 I crocheted a scarf for Shirley.
I mended a scarf for Shirley.
 Teresa drew a tree for Trevor.
Teresa trimmed the tree for Trevor.
 She wrote a script for the actor.
She edited a script for the actor.