Verbs and the Double Object Construction
Yoshihisa Morito
A.S. Hornby once analyzed English sentence patterns and showed 25 pat- terns in his Syntactic and Idiomatic English Dictionary (1942). His Sentence Pattern No.19 has a verb with two objects : an indirect object and a direct object. Verbs which have two objects are mostly monosyllabic Anglo-Saxon words. His Sentence Pattern No.18 is related to Pattern No.19. The transfor- mation between the two patterns seems to be troublesome.
This article deals with the double object construction and the dative move- ment and explains A.S. Hornby's sentence patterns and discusses the latest development in grammar and syntactic theories.
Abbreviations: S = subject, V = verb, 0 = object, C = complement, Prep = preposition, N = noun, Adj = adjective, Adv = adverb,
Pron = pronoun
* asterisk indicates unacceptability of a sentence .
1 A.S. Hornby's Sentence Patterns
Idiomatic and Syntactic English Dictionary (1966) shows 25 sentence pat-
terns.
Pattern 1 S + V + 0
Pattern 2 S + V + to-infinitive
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Pattern 3 Pattern 4 Pattern 5 Pattern 6 Pattern 7 Pattern 8 Pattern 9 Pattern 10 Pattern 11 Pattern 12 Pattern 13
Pattern 14
Pattern 15 Pattern 16 Pattern 17 Pattern 18 Pattern 19
Pattern 20 Pattern 21 Pattern 22 Pattern 23 Pattern 24 Pattern 25
S + V + N or Pron + to-infinitive S+V+NorPron+C
S + V + N or Pron + infinitive e.g. I made him do it.
S + V + N or Pron + present participle S+V+O+Adj
S + V + 0 + C e.g. They elected him king.
S + V + 0 + past participle e.g. You must get your hair cut.
S + V + 0 + Adv e.g. Put it here.
S + V + (that) clause
S + V + N or Pron + (that) clause
S + V+ conjunctive + to-infinitive e.g. I don't know what to do.
S + V + N or Pron + conjunctive + to-infinitive e.g. We showed him how to do it.
S + V+ conjunctive + clause
S + V + N or Pron + conjunctive + clause
S + V + gerund
S + V + 0 + Prep + 0 e.g. I gave the money to my friend.
S+V+0+0, S+V+N+N
e.g. Our teacher gave us an English lesson.
S+V+(for)+C S+V
S + V + predicate S + V + adverbial S+V+ Prep +O S + V + to-infinitive
e.g. We walked (for) five miles.
e.g. He called on me.
e.g. He came to see me.
in Sentence Pattern No.19 , A.S. Hornby classified verbs into three groups.
Group A: deny, give, hand, lend, pay, read, tell, throw, wish Have they paid you the money?
Will you lend me five shillings?
Our teacher gave us an English lesson.
I read him the letter.
Please throw me that book.
His mother told him a story.
He handed me the book.
The pupils wished their teacher "Good morning".
He denies her nothing.
Group B: buy, do, get, leave, make, order, spare, She made herself a cup of tea.
Her father bought her a new dress.
Buy me one.
Did you leave me any?
She ordered herself a new dress.
Will you do me a favour?
Can you spare me one?
Can you get me a copy of that book?
Group C: ask, envy, forgive, save, strike,
I envy you your fine garden. (= I envy your fine garden.) Forgive us our sins. (= Forgive our sins.)
That will save me a great deal of trouble.
I struck him a heavy blow.
He asked me a question.
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The verbs which belong verbs which mean "-j a
English give buy forgive lend make pay read show teach throw
elong to Sentence Pattern 19 correspond to or " kureru ."
Japanese
ageru or kureru
katte ageru or katte kureru
yurushite ageru or yurushite kureru kashite ageru or kashite kureru
tsukutte ageru or tsukutte kureru
haratte ageru or haratte kureru
yonde ageru or yonde kureru
misete ageru or misete kureru
oshiete agent or oshiete kureru nagete ageru or nagete kureru
Japanese
In Hornby's Sentence Patterns, Pattern 21 should come first and Pattern 22 and Pattern 23 will follow Pattern 1. So far as Pattern 19 is concerned, Pattern 18 should follow Pattern 19, since prepositional expressions have been developed at a later stage and the double object construction is prototyp- ical in English. Pattern 24 can be described as S + Phrasal Verb + 0.
2 Usage Problems
Some verbs are difficult to use. For example, "purchase" which is a formal verb for "buy" usually does not take two objects.
(1) His father bought him a new car.
(2) His father purchased him a new car.
(3) His father purchased a new car for him.
Sentence (3) is more common, since "purchase" is a verb of Latin origin
with two syllables. "Recommend" was formerly used with two objects, as in Sentence (4).
(4) The teacher recommended us an English-English dictionary.
(5) The teacher recommended an English-English dictionary to us.
Sentence (5) is used both in British and American English. Longman's Dictionary of Contemporary English (1987) used to have an example (6).
(6) Can you recommend me a good hotel?
Again, "recommend" is of Latin origin and two-syllabled. "Donate" and
"distribute" which are semantically related to "give" do not take two objects , probably because of the same reasons as those of "recommend." Present-day English prefers prepositional sentence patterns.
(7) *He donated UNICEF ten thousand dollars.
(8) He donated ten thousand dollars to UNICEF.
(9) *He distributed the children apples.
(10) He distributed apples to the children.
Also note that "contribute" and "introduce" do not take the double object construction.
As for "forgive," the following sentences are possible.
(11) He forgave me my misconduct.
(12) He forgave my misconduct.
(13) He forgave me for my misconduct.
In the dative movement, Sentence (14) is problematic.
(14) *He sent London a letter.
(15) He sent a letter to London.
"Send" requires a person or a recipient for the indirect object . The following sentences are worth paying attention to.
(16) *He gave a hard kick to the door.
(17) He gave the door a hard kick.
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(18) *He gave a kiss to her.
(19) He gave her a kiss.
(20) He gave her a cold.
"Give" usually takes a noun which is tangible in Pattern 18 . The recipient will possess the item.
Grammar Patterns 1: Verbs has the following verbs for the double object construction.
assure, bear, begrudge, bet, bring, buy, carve, cook, cut, do, envy, excuse,
fetch, find, fix, forgive, get, guarantee, knit, land, make, mix, order, owe, play, pour, prescribe, secure, set, sing, wangle
(21) We would not begrudge him the glory.
(22) She envied him the opportunities.
(23) She'd forgiven him many things.
(24) He owed her an apology.
(25) I owe her everything.
(26) He has set himself a particularly difficult goal.
3 A List of Verbs with two Objects (46 verbs)
ask bake bear begrudge bet book bring buy
carve
knit
lend
make
order
owe
paint
pass
pay
cook cost do envy excuse feed fetch find fix forgive get give hand kick
read
sell send
serve set sew
