Object (grammar)
An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon. As an example, the following sentence is given:
In the sentence "Bobby scored a goal", "a goal" is the object.
"Bobby" is the subject (the agent, doer, or performer of the action), "score" is the action, and "goal" is the object (what or whom the action of the verb is acting upon). The verb in the clause determines whether there can or must be objects in the sentence, and if so how many and of what type. (See also Valency (linguistics).) In many languages, including English, the same verb can allow different structures: "Bobby scored" and "Bobby scored a goal" are both valid English sentences. Note that the meaning of the verb can be affected by the presence or absence of an object.
Read more about Object (grammar): Types of Object, Forms of Object, The Object in Linguistics
Famous quotes containing the word object:
“Among all the modernized aspects of the most luxurious of industries, the model, a vestige of voluptuous barbarianism, is like some plunder-laden prey. She is the object of unbridled regard, a living bait, the passive realization of an ideal.... No other female occupation contains such potent impulses to moral disintegration as this one, applying as it does the outward signs of riches to a poor and beautiful girl.”
—Colette [Sidonie Gabrielle Colette] (1873–1954)