object (n.) (O, Obj, OBJ)

A term used in the analysis of GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS to refer to a major CONSTITUENT of SENTENCE or CLAUSE structure, traditionally associated with the ‘receiver’ or ‘goal’ of an action, as in The cat bit the dog. Traditional analysis distinguishes a direct versus an indirect object, to allow for sentences such as The teacher gave a letter to the girl/The teacher gave the girl a letter, which is marked in English by a contrast using PREPOSITIONS and WORD-ORDER, and in INFLECTING languages by different CASES (typically, the object case being ACCUSATIVE, the indirect object case being DATIVE). In GENERATIVE GRAMMAR, the direct object is called simply ‘object’, and contrasted with indirect object. A further distinction is that between objective genitive (i.e. the genitive functions as object, as in the writing of the questions = ‘X wrote the questions’), and ‘subjective genitive’ (i.e. the genitive functions as subject, as in the shouting of the people = ‘people shout’). Much discussion in LINGUISTICS has focused on clarifying the notion of ‘receiving’ an action, in relation to the other ELEMENTS of clause structure (SUBJECT, COMPLEMENT, etc.), distinguishing various kinds of VERB–object relationship, both in terms of SURFACE and UNDERLYING structure. Examples of problem sentences are John is easy to please (where John is the underlying object of please) and The plants are selling well (where in reality it is the plants which are the ‘logical receivers’ of the action).

In the study of inflected languages, objective may be used as an alternative to ACCUSATIVE; e.g. in English the contrast between subject and object forms of PRONOUNS (e.g. she ~ her) is sometimes referred to as a distinction between SUBJECTIVE and objective case. Some linguists talk about the ‘object of a preposition’ to refer to the NOUN PHRASE in around the corner. The term ‘objective’ has a special status in CASE GRAMMAR, where it refers to the semantically most neutral case, i.e. a noun whose role in the action is identified by the SEMANTIC interpretation of the verb itself. In GOVERNMENT-BINDING THEORY, objective Case is assigned to any noun phrase governed by a TRANSITIVE verb.