English Grammar Lecture 11: The Transitive Verb Patterns

"The Transitive Verb Patterns" lecture I delivered in my English 402--Grammar course at the State University of New York College at Cortland.

1. The Transitive Verb Patterns Ed McCorduck English 402--Grammar SUNY Cortland http://mccorduck.cortland.edu

2. recall: in transitive: 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)

3. transitive vs. intransitive verbs English 402: Grammar

4. Pattern VII NP 1 V- tr NP 2 ( subj ) ( pred vb ) (dir obj ) “dir obj ” is direct object direct object : entity (usually) directly affected by the action of a transitive verb

5. Pattern VII English 402: Grammar

6. exx The man | kissed | the woman. NP 1 V- tr NP 2 I | baked | a cake. NP 1 V- tr NP 2 The airline | flies | big jets. NP 1 V- tr NP 2 (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.)

7. examples of Pattern VII sentences English 402: Grammar

8. 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:

9. Pattern VIII NP 1 V- tr NP 2 NP 3 ( 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

10. Pattern VIII English 402: Grammar

11. exx He | sent | the IRS | a nasty note. NP 1 V- tr NP 2 NP 3 She | cooked | her husband | a hearty meal. NP 1 V- tr NP 2 NP 3

12. examples of Pattern VIII sentences English 402: Grammar

13. 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