Alexey86
Senior Member
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- Nov 3, 2018
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- Russian
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Hello! I sometimes find myself puzzled by article usage in grammar term definitions. Let's take "Direct object."
Here are three definitions of the term:
a) https://linguapress.com/grammar/list-of-terms.htm
"The direct object is the entity (person, thing, process) that is directly concerned by the action expressed through the verb, or is the entity that explains the action or process. It is the complement of a transitive verb. It can be a pronoun, a noun, a noun phrase, or more than one of these."
b) https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-direct-object-1690459
"In English grammar, a direct object is a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun that identifies what or who receives the action of a transitive verb in a clause or sentence."
c) https://writingexplained.org/grammar-dictionary/direct-object
"A direct object is a noun or pronoun that receives the action of the sentence."
My questions are:
1) (a) uses “the direct object”, whereas (b) and (c) use “a direct object”? Are these variants interchangeable in definitions?
2) (b) says, “...in a clause or sentence”, whereas (c) says, “...of the sentence.” What is the reason for “the”?
3) Is it possible to rewrite (a) this way: “A direct object is an entity (person, thing, process) that is directly concerned by an action expressed through a verb, or is an entity that explains an action or process. It is a complement of a transitive verb. It can be a pronoun, a noun, a noun phrase, or more than one of these”?
I see the possibility of using "a" because I'm not talking about any specific/aforementioned direct object, entity, verb or action, but about things that are just elements of certain classes or sets of objects. Not to mention, a sentence can have more than one verb, and a verb can have more than one direct object.
Here are three definitions of the term:
a) https://linguapress.com/grammar/list-of-terms.htm
"The direct object is the entity (person, thing, process) that is directly concerned by the action expressed through the verb, or is the entity that explains the action or process. It is the complement of a transitive verb. It can be a pronoun, a noun, a noun phrase, or more than one of these."
b) https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-direct-object-1690459
"In English grammar, a direct object is a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun that identifies what or who receives the action of a transitive verb in a clause or sentence."
c) https://writingexplained.org/grammar-dictionary/direct-object
"A direct object is a noun or pronoun that receives the action of the sentence."
My questions are:
1) (a) uses “the direct object”, whereas (b) and (c) use “a direct object”? Are these variants interchangeable in definitions?
2) (b) says, “...in a clause or sentence”, whereas (c) says, “...of the sentence.” What is the reason for “the”?
3) Is it possible to rewrite (a) this way: “A direct object is an entity (person, thing, process) that is directly concerned by an action expressed through a verb, or is an entity that explains an action or process. It is a complement of a transitive verb. It can be a pronoun, a noun, a noun phrase, or more than one of these”?
I see the possibility of using "a" because I'm not talking about any specific/aforementioned direct object, entity, verb or action, but about things that are just elements of certain classes or sets of objects. Not to mention, a sentence can have more than one verb, and a verb can have more than one direct object.
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