Subject Verb Direct Object Object?

Question

I am having a difficult time identifying the subject, verb(s), and direct and indirect objects in this sentence.'Please ask him to buy me a cake.'Thank you.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

paint zany 756I am having a difficult time identifying the subject, verb(s), and direct and indirect objects in this sentence.'Please ask him to buy me a cake.'

Well, which of those have you found so far, paint zany?

BillJ · Answer

paint zany 756
I am having a difficult time identifying the subject, verb(s), and direct and indirect objects in this sentence.
'Please ask him to buy me a cake.'

Please ask him [to buy me a cake].

In the matrix clause the covert (implied) subject is “you”, the verb is "ask" and “him” is direct object.

In the bracketed subordinate clause "buy" is the verb, “me” is indirect object and “a cake” is direct object. The subject is missing, but understood as "him".

It’s called a complex catenative construction because of the intervening NP "him" occurring between the adjacent verbs "ask" and "buy". "Ask” is called a catenative verb and the subordinate clause “to buy me a cake” is catenative complement of “ask”.

Importantly, the direct object of "ask" is just “him”, not “him to buy me a cake”, for the latter is not a constituent, but a sequence of direct object + complement.

Subject Verb Direct Object Object?

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