77. We have seen that a noun may be related to a verb as its subject. When the verb asserts action, as in the sentence, “Many birds eat flies,” then the subject many birds names the doer, or performer, of the action.
There is another very common relation that a noun may bear to a verb. In the sentence above, the verb eat asserts an action that is not only performed by something, but is also performed upon something. That is, there is a doer of the action, many birds, and a receiver of the action, flies. If we had merely the subject and the verb, our sentence would be incomplete, and we should ask at once, eat what?
Since the word flies completes the meaning of the verb eat, we call it the complement of the verb. Since it names the receiver of the action that is asserted by the verb eat, we call it the object or direct object of the verb.
78. Not all verbs require an object—only those which assert action which the subject performs upon some person or thing. Such verbs are called transitive verbs.
79. The object of a verb is not always a single word. The object may be compound, as in the sentence, “Many birds eat flies and gnats and mosquitoes.” Again, the object may be a group of words, of which a noun is the base word. In the following sentence there are three transitive verbs. What is the object of each verb? What is the base word of each object?—“Miss Dorothea dusted the banisters round the porch, straightened the rows of shoes in mother’s closet, and folded the daily papers in the rack.”
80. Just as we can find the subject of a verb by asking the question made by placing who or what before the verb, so we can find the object of a verb that asserts action by asking the question made by placing whom or what after the verb.
These questions are often a great help, especially if a sentence is long or transposed. In the sentence, “A more miserable little beast I had never seen,” what is the verb? Ask a question to find the subject. Ask a question to find the object.
Summary.—A transitive verb is one that asserts action performed upon some person or thing.
A complement is a word or a group of words used to complete the meaning of a verb.
The direct object of a verb is a word or a group of words that completes the meaning of a transitive verb and names the receiver of the action.
Note.—Not all transitive verbs denote action that is accompanied by motion. Some denote action of the senses; as, “I see the star,” “I taste the pepper.” Others denote action of the feelings; as, “I love the truth,” “I hate a lie.” Still others do not denote action at all; as, “I mean you,” “Our forefathers owned slaves,” “I kept her letter.” We must enlarge our notion of transitive verbs so as to make it include all verbs that take a complement which denotes a different person or thing from the subject.
Exercise 1.—Select all the transitive verbs in these sentences. Find both their subjects and their objects by asking the proper questions.
Note.—A transitive verb may be modified before it is completed. This is true of lifts in sentence 2. Oftener the idea expressed by the verb and its object together is modified; as in sentence 1, where the phrase in despair modifies not shook but shook her head.
1. Dotty Dimple shook her head in despair.
2. At the word of command, the two horsemen stop, each man lifts up his right leg, throws it over the back of his horse, and drops it to the ground so that the two boots tap the pavement at the same instant.
3. Her father found a pleasant seat on the shady side, hung the basket in a rack, and opened a window.
4. When the young surveyor left Detroit, he carried a huge green bandbox, and his wife in her far frontier home received in due time a beautiful blue bonnet.
5. I threw off an overcoat, took an armchair by the crackling logs, and awaited patiently the arrival of my hosts.
6. All the world likes molasses candy.
7. The children brought home great bunches of the brilliant leaves, and some they pressed and varnished, while others Katherine dipped in melted wax.
8. John trod down the exquisite ferns and the wonderful mosses without compunction. But he gathered from the crevices of the rocks the columbine and the eglantine and the blue harebell; he picked the high-flavored alpine strawberry, the blueberry, the boxberry, wild currants and gooseberries and fox grapes; he brought home armfuls of the pink and white laurel and the wild honeysuckle; he dug the roots of the fragrant sassafras and of the sweet flag; he ate the tender leaves of the wintergreen and its red berries; he gathered the peppermint and the spearmint; he gnawed the twigs of the black birch; he dug the amber gum from the spruce-tree; he brought home such medicinal herbs for the garret as the goldthread, the tansy, and the loathsome “boneset,” and he laid in for the winter, like a squirrel, stores of beechnuts, hazelnuts, hickorynuts, chestnuts, and butternuts.
Exercise 2.—Analyze the following sentences:—
Note.—If any part of a sentence is compound, state that fact before analyzing it. If the subject or object is compound, give the base words first, and then the modifiers of each. If the predicate is compound, analyze the first predicate completely, then the second, and so on. If any adverb or prepositional phrase modifies the idea denoted by the verb and the object, be sure to say so in your analysis. For instance, in the sentence, “We have seen his star in the east,” the predicate verb is have seen. It is completed by the direct object his star, and then modified by the prepositional phrase in the east.
1. Sometimes a perfume like absinthe sweetened all the air.
2. The little brown field mouse ran along in the grass, poked his nose into everything, and finally spied a smooth, shiny acorn.
3. My son, descend those steps and enter that door.
4. Many and many a pair of mittens had those busy fingers knit.
5. Always within a few moments the rabbits would resume their leaping progress through the white glitter and the hard, black shadows.
6. The visit of the tax collector seldom gives unmixed joy.
7. Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern.
8. The first glimpse of a new country always quickens the sense of the traveler.
9. Rebecca took off her hat and cape and hung them in the hall, put her rubber shoes and umbrella carefully in the corner, and then opened the door of paradise.
10. The scent of herbs and the fragrance of fruit filled the great unfinished chamber.
11. A polished brazen rod on a broad wooden pedestal beside the armchair held half a dozen lamps of silver on sliding arms.
12. Messala hugged the stony wall with perilous clasp.
13. Amrah rubbed her eyes, bent closer down, clasped her hands, gazed wildly around, looked at the sleeper, then stooped and raised his hand, and kissed it fondly.
14. The proprietor of the fruit stand has a bald head, a long face, and a nose like the beak of a hawk.
15. Without more ado Mr. Cary grasped his arm firmly, and fairly lifted him into the room.