GRAMMATICAL FUNCTION

By:

Siti Nurani, S.Pd., M.Hum.

• Two sets of concepts bear on the relationship
between the verb in a clause and its complements:

1. The set of grammatical functions or

grammatical relations: subject, direct object,

indirect object/second object and oblique

object.

2. The set of roles: Agent & Patient.

A. SUBJECT
grammatical subject, logical subject, psychological subject

Example:
(1) The tigers hunt prey at night.

Tigers precede the verb. It agrees with the verb in number,

as becomes clear when it is made singular: The tiger hunts
its prey at night. In the active construction, it is never
marked by any preposition. The corresponding full passive
clause is Prey is hunted by the tigers at night; in the passive
clause, the subject of (1), the tigers, turns up inside the
prepositional phrase by the tigers.
 The above criteria—agreement in number with the verb,
never being preceded by a preposition, occurring in the by
phrase in the passive – are grammatical, and the noun they
pick out in a given clause is the grammatical subject of the
clause.
 In (1) tigers refers to the Agent. Many analysts consider that
tigers refers to the Agent in the passive sentence too,
although it is inside the by prepositional phrase and at the
end of the sentence. They call the logical subject, by which
is meant that in either syntactic construction tigers denotes
the Agent (its role in the situation does not change)
 Other analysts maintain that in the passive sentence tigers
no longer denotes the Agent but rather the Path by which
the action reaches and affects the prey.
 A third type of subject is the psychological subject. In (1),
tigers is the starting point of the message; it denotes the
entities about which the speaker wishes to say something.

Examples:
(2) a. Fiona hoped to meet the Prime Minister.
b. Susan intends to reach Kashgar.
c. Arthur tried to bake a cake.
Description:
All these examples contain infinitive phrases: to meet the PM,
to reach Kashgar, to bake a cake. One of their properties being
that they have understood subjects: for example, Fiona is the
understood subject of meet the PM; Fiona is, so to speak,
doing the hoping and Fiona is the person who is to do the
meeting, and similarly for Susan in (2b) and Arthur in (2c).
B. DIRECT OBJECT
Examples:
(3) a. Louise broke the cup.
b. Alison drove the car.
c. Martha chewed the bread.
Description:
Direct object NP is never preceded by a preposition – in the
sentence Martha chewed on the bread, bread is not a direct object,
and the entity it denotes is not completely affected by the action of
chewing.

Examples:
(4) a. The cup was broken by Louise.
b. The car was driven by Alison.
c. The bread was chewed by Martha.
Description:
Direct object NPs typically refer to Patients
C. OBLIQUE OBJECT AND INDIRECT OBJECT
Any noun phrase that is the complement of a preposition is an
oblique object, where the prepositional phrase is itself the
complement of a verb. In (5), to Onegin, to Egilsay, and for Jane
are oblique objects.
Examples:
(5) a. Tatiana wrote to Onegin.
b. Magnus went to Egilsay.
c. Frank bought a piano for Jane.

It is difficult to separate indirect objects from adverbs of direction.

The two can be distinguished on the grounds that indirect object
NPs contain animate nouns, whereas adverbs of place contain
inanimate nouns denoting countries, towns and other places. We
would expect inanimate nouns not to occur immediately to the
right of a verb such as sent in (6) and (7).
Examples:
(6) a. Lucy sent a letter to Isadore.
b. Lucy sent Isadore a letter.

(7) a. The Government sent an envoy to China.

b. * The Government sent China an envoy.
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