1

In the following example:

I told my friend about the book

Is the prepositional phrase about the book functioning as a direct object? Or would it function as either an adjective or adverb.

For me, about the book is an adverbial modifying the verb to tell and giving us more information about what's being told.

Improve this question
3
  • 5
    No, it's not a "direct object". It's what you already said - an [adverb] prepositional phrase. A direct object woud be I told my friend the truth (my friend being the indirect object, that could itself be "prepositionized" as I told the answer to my friend).
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 31 at 21:37
  • 2
    Well, you could state, "I read Of Mice and Men." Admittedly, the title of a book is a proper noun, though a prepositional phrase. Then there's Burns' To a Mouse, None of these quite squeak by, though.
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Commented May 31 at 22:48
  • 3
    It's neither direct object nor an adjective or adverb. The PP "about the book" is complement of "tell", the verb that licenses it.
    – BillJ
    Commented Jun 1 at 6:30

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

The prepositional phrase "about the book", within the verb phrase headed by "told", can only be one of two things: an adjunct or a complement. Adjuncts (adverbials or adverbial adjuncts) are omissible; complements are not. Since "I told my friend" is an incomplete sentence without the prepositional phrase, it is a complement. "Tell" being a typical ditransitive verb that takes two complements (objects are a kind of complement, namely noun phrase complements) lends support to this interpretation:

  • I told my friend [something (direct object/NP complement)].
  • I told my friend [about the book (PP complement)].
Improve this answer
11
  • 1
    I wouldn't say that "I told my friend" is 'incomplete', at least not grammatically. But I agree that the PP "about the book" is complement of "tell", the verb that licenses it.
    – BillJ
    Commented Jun 1 at 6:18
  • Note that "tell" is ditransitive in "I told him a story", but is monotransitive in the OP's example.
    – BillJ
    Commented Jun 1 at 8:41
  • Note also, that is some cases complements may be optional. For example, in "Sue ate the cheese", the complement (object) "the cheese" is grammatically optional.
    – BillJ
    Commented Jun 8 at 7:25
  • @BillJ "About the book" is unquestionably an argument in the OP's example, making "tell" trivalent. I find it strange to translate this as monotransitive, but leave this aside. If you think that complements are omissble, then I am genuinely interested in what your definition of a complement is.
    – ishtar
    Commented Jun 8 at 9:32
  • I take valency to be the number of complements, so the OP’s example (including the subject) is trivalent. For those who don’t treat subjects as complements, then “tell” is bivalent in that example. Regarding transitivity, “tell” has only one object, “my friend”, and thus is monotransitive. I define ‘complement’, briefly, as a dependent that must be licensed by the verb. In the example Sue ate the cheese, the object “the cheese” is licensed by (and thus a complement of ) “ate”, but it is not obligatory (i.e. it is not required to grammatically complete the VP) and thus is optional.
    – BillJ
    Commented Jun 8 at 12:04
0

It doesn't make sense to think of it as a direct object. A direct object is a thing that receives the action of the verb. Like if you say, "I read the book", "the book" is the direct object because it is the thing being read. "Sally answered many questions", "many questions" is the direct object because it is what is being answered. Etc.

There may be cases where the idea of "receives the action" may be fuzzy. But I can't think of any sense in which "about the book" could be said to be receiving the action of "told". You could say, "I told my friend the title of the book." Then the thing that you told is "the title". But you wouldn't say that the thing that you told is "about the book". Maybe what you told is something about the book, but for that to make sense, there has to be a "something" in there.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .