English Grammar Lecture 11: The Transitive Verb Patterns
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The document discusses transitive and intransitive verbs in English grammar, outlining their definitions and providing examples of sentence structures. It introduces Reed-Kellogg diagrams to illustrate the arrangement of subjects, predicates, direct, and indirect objects in these patterns. Additionally, it explains alternate structures for sentences with indirect objects and how they can be represented in diagrams.
English Grammar Lecture 11: The Transitive Verb Patterns
- 1. The Transitive Verb Patterns Ed McCorduck English 402--Grammar SUNY Cortland http://mccorduck.cortland.edu
- 2. recall: intransitive: • does not take an object (traditional grammar definition) • does not require a direct object or a complement (descriptive grammar definition) ergo, transitive: • takes an object (traditional grammar definition) • requires a direct object (descriptive grammar definition) slide 2: transitive vs. intransitive verbs English 402: Grammar
- 3. Pattern VII NP1 V-tr NP2 (subj) (pred vb) (dir obj) • “dir obj” is direct object • direct object: entity (usually) directly affected by the action of a transitive verb slide 3: Pattern VII English 402: Grammar
- 4. exx The man | kissed | the woman. NP1 V-tr NP2 I | baked | a cake. NP1 V-tr NP2 The airline | flies | big jets. NP1 V-tr NP2 (Note that in this last example the airline really doesn’t “do” anything to or affect the jets in any way, but this sentence is still classified as a Pattern VII sentence with a transitive verb.) slide 4: examples of Pattern VII sentences English 402: Grammar
- 5. slide 5: Reed-Kellogg diagram of a Pattern VII sentence English 402: Grammar In Reed-Kellogg diagrams, the headword of a noun phrase that functions as the direct object is placed on the main line after the verb and separated from it by a vertical line which, unlike the vertical line separating a sentence’s subject from its predicate, does not bisect the main line but remains perpendicular to it. To illustrate, here is the diagram of the Pattern VII sentence I baked a cake in which the headword of the direct object cake is separated from the verb baked by a vertical line:
- 6. Pattern VIII NP1 V-tr NP2 NP3 (subj) (pred vb) (indir obj) (dir obj) • “indir obj” is indirect object • indirect object: (normally animate) entity that is indirectly affected by the action of the verb, i.e., the “recipient” or “beneficiary” of the action slide 6: Pattern VIII English 402: Grammar
- 7. exx He | sent | the IRS | a nasty note. NP1 V-tr NP2 NP3 She | cooked | her husband | a hearty meal. NP1 V-tr NP2 NP3 slide 7: examples of Pattern VIII sentences English 402: Grammar
- 8. Most transitive verbs that can be used in Pattern VIII sentences can also appear in Pattern VII sentences (but the reverse is generally not true): He sent the IRS a nasty note. V-tr dir obj He sent a nasty note. She cooked her husband a hearty meal. V-tr dir obj She cooked a hearty meal. She cooked her husband. dir obj slide 8: verbs occurring both Pattern VII and Pattern VIII sentences English 402: Grammar
- 9. Instead of requiring a structure in which the indirect object precedes the direct object, many verbs occurring in Pattern VIII sentences can enter into alternate structures where the direct object comes before the indirect object which actually becomes the noun phrase in a prepositional phrase headed usually by to or for. For example, the sentence He sent the IRS a nasty note can be “transformed” into He sent a nasty note to the IRS, and the relationship between these two sentences is schematized below: He sent the IRS a nasty note. indir obj dir obj He sent a nasty note to the IRS. dir obj indir obj slide 9: alternate Pattern VIII sentences with PPs English 402: Grammar
- 10. Knowing about these alternate forms of Pattern VIII sentences can actually help us understand the reasons that Reed- Kellogg diagrams for sentences of this pattern are drawn the ways they are. Take our first example set; if we diagram the second variant He sent a nasty note to the IRS, the diagram will be as follows: slide 10: Reed-Kellogg diagrams of alternate Pattern VIII sentences with PPs English 402: Grammar
- 11. The diagram of He sent the IRS a nasty note is exactly the same in that the indirect object the IRS is indicated as a prepositional phrase under the main verb sent with the only but important difference that since the preposition to is not used in this structure where the indirect object the IRS precedes the direct object a nasty note, it is omitted from the diagram: slide 11: Reed-Kellogg diagrams of PP-less Pattern VIII sentences English 402: Grammar
- 12. Similarly, if the diagram of She made a hearty meal for her husband is examined first, slide 12: Reed-Kellogg diagram of an alternate Pattern VIII sentence with a PP headed by for English 402: Grammar
- 13. the diagram of She made her husband a hearty meal falls out from it: slide 13: another Reed-Kellogg diagram of a PP-less Pattern VIII sentence English 402: Grammar