Subject -Verb- Object , sentence structure

Question

He seemed to know that the teacher was planning to resign.

He is the subject,and seemed is the verb , and to know is the object. Is this correct?

And what about the clause "that the teacher was planning to resign."

I understand it is a object behind the transitive verb "know",

but then the structure would be S V O O.

Or is the entire "to know that the teacher was planning to resign" an object,making it S V O?

I appreciate your telling me this.

A similar question confuses me,

I:subject, appreciate:verb , your telling:object,

what about "me" and "this", it seems like an S V O O O structure, but such pattern doesn't exit in grammar.

Or is the "your telling me this" the object of the verb "appreciate"?

And how can the " your telling me this" be grammatically explained. Is it an object comprised of " Gerund verb + two objects" ?

Answer 1

He seemed to know that the teacher was planning to resign.

There is no object here. "Seem" is a catenative verb and this is a catenative construction where the infinitival clause "to know that the teacher was planning to resign" is catenative complement of "seemed".

that the teacher was planning to resign

This is not an object, but a declarative content clause functioning as complement of "know".

I appreciate your telling me this.

"Appreciate" is a catenative verb and the gerund-participial clause "your telling me this" is its catenative complement, not object. "Telling" has "me" as indirect object, and "this" as direct object.

Note that only noun phrases, not clauses, can function as objects.

The term 'catenetive' comes from the Latin word for "chain", which is appropriate here since the verbs involved do indeed form a chain.

Answer 2

I am not a linguist, but I am a native English speaker. Using various online resources, this is what I came up with (though I may be wrong).

We have

He seemed to know that the teacher was planning to resign.

The word "that" is being used to join two clauses:

He seemed to know

and

the teacher was planning to resign

The second clause is dependent on the first clause.

In the first clause, we have a subject (He), a verb (seemed), and an object (to know). They are in the SVO order.

The verb "to know" is in it's infinitive form, so it can be used sort of like a noun.

In the second clause, we have a subject (The teacher), a verb (was), and an object (planning to resign). Again, they are in the SVO order.

The verb "planning" is in it's gerund form, so it is used as a noun. The verb "to resign" is in it's infinitive form, so it can be used sort of like an adjective.

On to your second sentence:

I appreciate your telling me this

First off, I think it sounds slightly weird. I would rather say

I appreciate you telling me this

On the other hand, I think the original may be spoken by some native speakers sometimes, though I don't think it is technically correct.

We have a subject (I), a verb (appreciate), and an object (you telling me this). They are in SVO order.

The verb "telling" is in it's gerund form, and it has a subject and an object of it's own: the word "you" is the subject and the word "me" is the object in the phrase "you telling me this". The word "this" is being used as a determiner, so that we know exactly what it is that has been told. Again, we have SVO order. Since it is a gerund clause, it is used as a noun.