When explaining nuances in some previous blog posts, such as the “Dan and I, or me and Dan?” piece, I have used some linguistic terms to describe parts of a sentence in the generic sense. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and even adverbs are familiar to many, and commonly mentioned in high school English classes across the English-speaking nations. Some terms, however, are not so often used, and can cause confusion. The following are two basic parts of speech, or terms which are assigned to words to describe their function within a sentence.
Subject
The subject of a sentence is the noun or noun phrase (generally a person, pronoun, animal or inanimate object, with any associated articles and adjectives, but can also be a concept or an infinitive verb phrase) to which the sentence is attributing an action or state. A subject and verb are the two essential components of a sentence, and in the simplest syntax, the subject comes first, followed by the verb - think “Dave left,” “Dogs bark,” or “Jesus wept.”
As sentences become more complex, with additional parts of speech and less straightforward structures, finding the subject can be a little trickier. Ask yourself who or what the subject is essentially about; who or what is doing the primary action being described or experiencing the state being described. Below are a few examples of sentences with the primary subjects bolded.
The boy had a green apple, and it was sour.
Always lit up, even during the small hours, Times Square is an icon of New York City.
When explaining nuances in some previous blog posts, such as the “Dan and I, or me and Dan?” piece, I have used some linguistic terms to describe parts of a sentence in the generic sense.
The dark green avocados are riper than the pale ones.
Object
An object is another noun or noun phrase that is acted upon by the subject directly, indirectly or via preposition. In very simple sentence structure, English is an “SVO” language - subject, verb, object. This is obvious in basic sentences such as “I saw the dog”, in which “I” is the subject, “saw” is the past tense of the verb (to see), and “the dog” is the object.
A direct object is something that is acted upon directly by the subject, and is used with transitive verbs - that is, a verb which requires an object upon which to act. An example of this is the verb “to catch.” The cat catches the mouse. The early bird catches the worm. “To eat” can be a transitive verb - “the cat eats the mouse,” or intransitive, not requiring a direct object - “the cat eats.” A direct object has no preposition between it and the verb - it follows on directly.
Below are a few examples of sentences with primary subjects bolded and their direct objects italicised:
My husband was watching TV because there was a rugby league game on.
The kids that live down the street broke the fence and ran away.
When they are experiencing teething pain, babies like frozen chew toys.
An indirect object is something that is acted upon or affected indirectly, and comes in conjunction with a direct object. It is often a person or animal who receives or benefits from the direct object. Often it is inserted before the direct object, and it can also be adjoined by a preposition, generally “to” or “for”.
Below are a few examples of sentences with subjects bolded, direct objects italicised and indirect objects both bolded and italicised.
Jane gave her the book.
In order to ensure the game was fair, the referee gave the teams equal time to prepare.
Grant, who was visiting, gave the wine to Sally.*
A prepositional object (sometimes called an oblique object) is a noun or noun phrase that is introduced by a preposition. It often places the action being described by the sentence, or the subject of the sentence, in time or space. It is not considered a part of the basic sentence structure, but adds information.
Below are a few examples of sentences with subjects bolded, direct objects italicised, indirect objects (where applicable) both bolded and italicised, and prepositional objects in parentheses.
The quick brown fox jumps over (the lazy dog).
Chris offered her a lollipop for (her baby).
Barbara took her cat to (the beach down the road).
The above explanations are a little simplistic and leave out many nuances of subject and object - the full science of syntax is very complex and fills many, many textbooks. However, it is extremely fascinating! I studied a few aspects of linguistics as a part of my BA degree, and it solidified my love of language. The ways in which we communicate are such an incredible blend of art and science. In weaving together words, we are almost always following patterns and rules of which we have no conscious knowledge, and yet always creating, always expressing.
*Some grammar theories say that if the indirect object is separated by a preposition like this, it becomes a prepositional or oblique object rather than an indirect object.