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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
Objects
Hi,
"We must focus our attention on the question of reducing costs" [From the Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs by Rosemary Courtney.]
The transitive verb "focus on" has two objects in this sentence: a direct object and an indirect one.
My question is: is the "question of reducing costs" a direct object and "our attention" an indirect one?
Thank you.
"We must focus our attention on the question of reducing costs" [From the Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs by Rosemary Courtney.]
The transitive verb "focus on" has two objects in this sentence: a direct object and an indirect one.
My question is: is the "question of reducing costs" a direct object and "our attention" an indirect one?
Thank you.
Top answer
The answer may depend on who replies. There are many ways to parse a sentence. In my grammatical thinking, there is no indirect object in the sentence.
- The answer may depend on who replies.
- There are many ways to parse a sentence.
- In my grammatical thinking, there is no indirect object in the sentence.
- Anonymous We must focus our attention on the question of reducing costs Our attention is the direct object of focus and the question of reducing costs is the object of the preposition on.
- In the following sentence, him is an example of an indirect object: I gave him some money.
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2 Answers
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The answer may depend on who replies. There are many ways to parse a sentence. In my grammatical thinking, there is no indirect object in the sentence.
AnonymousWe must focus our attention on the question of reducing costsOur attention is the direct object of fo
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Hi,
Thank you, CB, for your reply. The problem is that the author of the dictionary qualifies "focus on v prep " ['to direct (something such as one's thoughts) firmly on (a subject)] as "a transitive verb with two objects: a direct noun object and a noun indirect object" I think that I miss something here, especially with the position of the modifier 'noun' in both phrases:
Thank you, CB, for your reply. The problem is that the author of the dictionary qualifies "focus on v prep " ['to direct (something such as one's thoughts) firmly on (a subject)] as "a transitive verb with two objects: a direct noun object and a noun indirect object" I think that I miss something here, especially with the position of the modifier 'noun' in both phrases:
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