indirect object
- noun
- /ˌɪn.dɪˈrɛkt ˈɑb.dʒɛkt/
:
objeto indirecto
- In the phrase, "They told him a story," "him" serves as the indirect object of the verb.
- direct and indirect object
Examples
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For example, if the S2 noun phrase in (41a) is a subject, then we have VOS word order; but if it is only an indirect object, then it is not relevant to our study of the position of the S2 subject.
Academic text (1995) -
Some of the preliminary stories presented to the children contained direct and indirect object pronouns because these forms are very common in Spanish and almost impossible to avoid in a narrative.
Academic text (2012) -
The majority of cases in the corpus in which there are two S2 noun phrases are ambiguous between subject and indirect object.
Academic text (1995) -
As Peirce liked to point out, our everyday language, by distinguishing between direct and indirect objects, has a version of this logical insight built into its grammar.
Academic text (1994) -
But even with third-person pronouns, we often have problems determining whether the pronoun refers to a lower clause subject, which is what interests us, or merely an S2 indirect object: PREFORMATTED TABLE
Academic text (1995) -
In the sentence, "She gave me a book," "me" is the indirect object receiving the book.
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When constructing sentences, the indirect object usually comes before the direct object, as in "I sent her a letter."
Antonyms
1
3.9
A word or group of words that names people and things and receives the action of a verb
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'object' (a noun receiving the verb's action) modified by 'indirect' (occurring via an intermediary), so the notion of a recipient/beneficiary distinct from the direct object is derivable from the parts. This is a common grammatical label across many languages, making the construction predictable and accessible to B1 learners who know both constituent words.
Etymology
The term indirect object comes from a simple picture: when you give something, the thing given is the direct object and the person who gets it is the indirect object. So, the indirect object shows 'to whom' or 'for whom' the action is done and tells who receives or benefits from the action.