Delahunty and Garvey
likes them. As in the case of the intransitive pattern, modifiers and auxiliaries
do not affect the basic pattern.
Another test of objecthood is based on the fact that many clauses of pattern
2 may be passivized. Generally, direct objects may be passivized; modifiers can
never be. The (a) clauses below are the active counterparts of the passive (b)
clauses.
(85) a. The entire family can enjoy nature movies.
b. Nature movies can be enjoyed by the entire family.
(86) a. Multinational corporations exploit poor countries.
b. Poor countries are exploited by multinational corporations.The object of the active clause corresponds to the subject of the passive.
You should convince yourself that nature movies and poor countries really are
the subjects of (85b) and (86b), respectively, by applying the tests for subject-
hood we developed earlier.
As a final remark on objects, note that most of the semantic roles available
to subjects are available also to objects, so objects may be interpreted in a
wider range of ways than just the traditional “entity affected by the action of
the verb.”
Exercise
(a) Identify the (whole) object in each of the following clauses, then (b)
identify the object’s semantic role:
a. Bill moved the table.
b. Bill made the table.
c. The divorce upset him.
d. The doctor stitched the wound.
e. We use a word processor for our work.
f. The fund drive benefited the local radio station.
g. We left the room.
h. We approached the border.
i. We skied the mountain trails.
j. We would appreciate it greatly if you would leave.
What problems did you encounter? How did you solve them?
Basic clause pattern 3: subject complement
The subject complement construction resembles the direct object pattern in