Timeline for Can a sentence have an indirect object without a direct object?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
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| Oct 18, 2014 at 3:02 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | @talrnu An Object, Direct or Indirect, is a sort of Complement of the verb - it 'completes' the sense of the verb. I ran can stand on its own - to the store or away from him are Adjuncts which supplement the content. Note, too, that an Indirect Object can be expressed without a preposition - I gave him $100 - to him is merely an alternate way of expressing the Complement. But I ran store is meaningless. Store is the Object only of the preposition, not of the verb. | |
| Oct 18, 2014 at 2:22 | comment | added | Ornello | You can have a direct object without an indirect object, but you must have a direct object to have an indirect object. | |
| Oct 18, 2014 at 2:14 | comment | added | Ornello | I think you need a transitive verb to have a direct object and an indirect object. You cannot have an indirect object without a direct object and a transitive verb. 'Run' is not a transitive verb in your example. | |
| Oct 18, 2014 at 2:07 | comment | added | talrnu | Your example is correct, because gave is transitive, and therefore requries a direct object. In my example, ran is intransitive, and therefore must have no direct object. Would you explain specifically how store is not an indirect object in the example I gave? | |
| Oct 18, 2014 at 1:44 | history | answered | Ornello | CC BY-SA 3.0 |