prepositional phrase between a verb and its object

[Yonsu99]

In my coursebook, there is
: "As its name suggests, formalistic criticism has for its sole object the discovery and explanation of form in the literary work."
I understand the following is the same as
: 'As its name suggests, formalistic criticism has the discovery and explanation of form in the literary work for its sole object.

Is inserting prepositional phrase between a verb and its object confined to verb have and its object? Or is it applicable to other transitive verbs such as paint, tint, play, sing and so forth?

 

[MikeNewYork]

It is not an unusual construction.

 

[Yonsu99]

Your reply confirmed me that prepositional phrase can be between a transitive verb and its object, Mike. I don't know about other examples having this construction. But if I find any later on, I'll add it to this thread.

 

[MikeNewYork]

OK.

 

[Raymott]

Yes, you could post for our benefit any examples you find.

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello, Yonsu:

Like the other posters, I found your question very interesting.

So I went to my books yesterday but came up empty-handed. This morning, however, I discovered that Google does, indeed, have some articles on this topic.

I would like to quote two results that I found. I am sure that you can find many other results.

(1) "On rare occasions, a prepositional phrase can function like an appositive, in which case you should set it off with commas: I am slashing, for one day only, these already low prices."

-- Ms. Jennifer Spirko in a Google result entitled "Can a Prepositional Phrase Follow a Transitive Verb?"

(2) Mr. Neil Coffen on the website "Stack Exchange" gives these two sentences:

a. "He put on the table three books that I never even knew had been published."
b. "He put three books that I never even knew had been published on the table."

Mr. Coffen opines that the length of the direct object might the reason that some speakers might prefer 2a.




James