By what parts of speech can the object be expressed?

The object can be expressed by:

(1) a noun: Ted broke his car; Ted dug a deep trench;

(2) the gerund: I hate swimming; I am fond of running:

(3) the infinitive: I like to read; He wants to walk;

(4) a pronoun: Our team consists of you and me; He loves you; I know nothing;

(5) a noun p hrase: He saw a large snake;

(6) a verbal phrase: He wants to walk quickly;

(7) an infiniti ve c onstruction: This is for you toeat after dinner;

(8) a gerundial complex: / heard of you\yourknocking about time with whore;

(9) a numeral: Five and three makes eight;

(10) an object clause: Our success will depend on whether we all will participate: Tom said that he was ill.

4) What is the difference between the direct and indirect objects?

Both the direct and indirect objects follow a transitive verb. The direct object is always non-prepositional, whatever position in the sentence it takes.

For example: I gave the boy an apple. = I gave an apple to the boy. The direct object designates a passive recipient of an action.

The indirect object is non-prepositional if it immediately follows the transitive verb and precedes the direct object; and it is prepositional if it follows the direct object. For example: I gave the boy an apple. = I gave an apple to the boy. The indirect object designates an addressee of an action.

5)What is the cognate object?

The cognate object is another type of the non-prepositional object. It is always expressed by the noun of the same root and meaning as the governing verb: The child smiled the smile and laughed the laugh of contentment; A fellow must live his own life. The verbs taking cognate objects (smile, live) are intransitive [ непереходные ] verbs, but in these combinations they appear as transitive.

The nouns, which function as cognate objects, are close to adverbials in their meaning. It can be proved by the substituion of the cognate object with an adverbial: They lived a happy life. > They lived happily.

6) What are the two interpretations of the role of the INFINITIVE which is dependent upon a verb and follows it?

E.g.: Ted likes to swim.

The first approach is that the infinitive occupies the position of the object.

The second approach is that the infinitive occupies the position of the predicative.

In the first case the predicate appears to be simple.

In the second case the predicate appears to be compound verbal consisting of:

the finite part expressed by:

- phase verbs (start, begin, end, continue),

- verbs expressing the idea of planning (plan, intend, offer, propose),

- verbs expressing the subject’s attitude to the action denoted by the infinitive (want, wish, desire,

like, love, dislike, hate)

and the predicative (= the infinitive).

(1) Those who believe that the infinitive occupies the position of the object, support their point of view by the fact that the infinitive in the given combinations can be replaced with a noun, which appears to be the object: plan to go – plan an attack; want to help – want some water; start to run – start a quarrel; continue to read - continue the discussion; propose to ask – propose a way of settlement; like to swim – like candy.

In compound verbal (modal) predicates (can go, must help, should understand) the infinitive cannot be replaced with a noun: * can a trip; * must a walk – here the infinitive is part of the compound predicate and occupies the position of the predicative (Б.А. Ильиш).

(2) The other point of view is that the infinitive cannot occupy the position of the object. It occupies the position of the predicative – here the infinitive is part of the compound verbal predicate, in which the first constituent does not denote an action but denotes the subject’s attitude to the action.

For example, А.И. Смирницкий writes that the infinitive cannot function as an objective complement because:

(a) the infinitive is never preceded by a preposition, i.e. it cannot be a prepositional object. According to А.И. Смирницкий, non-prepositional objects can only exist in opposition to prepositional ones (they make up a privative binary opposition, the prepositional object being the marked member of the opposition). If one of the members of the category disappears, the whole category disappears too;

(b) the infinitive is sometimes used in positions where no noun objects are used: I am glad to see you.