The Classification of Words

§ 445. Sometimes a verb may take two direct objects, e. g. They asked him questions. Though this sentence is structurally similar to They gave him books the functions of him in the two sentences are different. In the first sentence it can be used without the second object (Don't ask him), in the second it cannot. The same in the corresponding passive constructions: He was asked but not He was given. So in the first sentence him is a direct object, in the second — an indirect one.
§ 446. Besides the direct and indirect objects linguists distinguish the so-called cognate object. In the sentences She slept a sound sleep. We live a happy life the verbs to sleep and to live, usually subjective, seem to take direct objects. But these objects are of peculiar nature: they do not denote anything that is outside the action and affected by it, as is the case with most objects. The nouns sleep anf life are cog­nate with the verbs to sleep and to live, i. e. they are of com­mon origin and kindred meaning. They modify the verb rather as adverbials than as objects. Cf.: She slept a sound sleep. = — She slept soundly. We live a happy life. = We life hap­pily.
Here is one of the links between objective and adverbial complements. Another link is a case like They passed a mile in silence where a mile may be taken for a direct object to the transitive verb to pass, or, in accordance with the meaning of the noun mile, for an adverbial complement of place. Cf. They walked a mile. He passed five- years in the Far North.
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§ 447. Objective complements, as defined, may be nouns 'or noun-equivalents. Among the latter we may count the gerund, and the infinitive, alone or together with their sub­ject-words, (i. e. the whole complex).
A. I. Smirnitsky is of the opinion that, unlike the gerund, the infinitive cannot function as an objective complement. ¹ The arguments are as follows.

1. 
   Since it is never preceded by a preposition, it cannot
   be a prepositional object, and prepositionless objects exist
   only as contrasted with prepositional ones.
   
2. 
   The infinitive is sometimes used in positions where no
   noun objects are used, e. g. / am glad to see you.
   
3. 
   In sentences like / want to go there the infinitive does
   not denote the object of the action of wanting (as in the case
   

-of / want a book). It rather unfolds the content of that action.
There is no denying the fact that the infinitive differs from the noun in many respects, including the features men­tioned by A. I. Smirnitsky, but we do not think this prevents the infinitive from being an object when it is the complement of an objective verb. The infinitive is not preceded by prepo­sitions and has the verbal meaning of 'action' when discharg­ing о t h e r functions in common with nouns. Cf. a book to read, and a b&ok for Sunday, he came for a book and he came to study. But A. I. Smirnitsky does not deny the infinitive the func­tions of an attribute or an adverbial on the same grounds. Moreover, he reminds his readers ² that the infinitive is no­minal by origin, and the particle to is a preposition by origin, and that accounts for the fact that the infinitive as an attrib­ute is placed in the same position as a noun with a preposi­tion.
In a sentence like His intention was to write a book the very possibility of connecting the noun intention and the infinitive to write with the help of the link-verb to be proves the nominal character of the infinitive. The same in the sentence To write a book was his ambition. Similarly m the sentence His intention to write a book was not realized, where to write is a kind of apposition to the noun intention.
¹ Морфология английского языка, р 251 See also «Иностранные языки в школе», 1955, № 4, р 108
^: Синтаксис английского языка, р. 248.
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We think that the nominal nature of the infinitive, suf­ficiently well preserved to allow its being used as a subject, an attribute, a predicative and an adverbial complement, suffices to make it an objective complement in cases like / promised him to come (cf. / promised him a fair hearing). I forgot to shave (cf. / forgot the key), etc.
§ 448. Like other parts of a simple sentence (clause), ob­jective complements may be expressed by complexes and are then called complex objects.
Analysing the sentence / hate you to go away, B. A. Ilyish shows * that the object of the verb hate is not you (which would change the meaning of the sentence) but the whole infinitival complex you to go away.
Traditionally such complexes have been called 'The Ac­cusative with the Infinitive', but some authors ² object to this term on the ground that there is no accusative case in Modern English. Another current term 'The Objective with the Infinitive' is also unsatisfactory since it seems to exclude cases like / hate my brother to go away where brother is in the common case.
L. P. Vinokurova uses the term 'The Objective Infinitive Construction' which is better in many respects, and first of all because the syntactical construction gets a syntactical name, but there exists another objective infinitive construc­tion with the preposition for (as in the sentence / am waiting for you to go) which the same author calls 'the for-to-infinitive construction'—a very inconvenient name and inconsistent too. We should prefer to call these complexes 'The prepositional (or prepositionless) objective infinitive complex' in the same way as we distinguish prepositional and prepositionless objects in general ³.
A complex object may also be an 'objective participle complex', as in / heard the key turning in the lock, an 'objective gerund complex' prepositional, as in All depends on Tom com­ing in time, or prepositionless, as in Excuse him coming so late.
¹ Op. cit, p. 53.
² See, for instance Л П. Винокурова. Грамматика англий­
ского языка, Л., 1954, р. 172.
³ Naturally, in sentences like For htm to go there is a feat, or Here
are some books for you to read the infinitive complexes may be defined
as a 'prepositional subjective infinitive complex' and a 'prepositional
attributive infinitive complex' respectively.
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§ 449. Besides the well-known features of similarity be­tween the object and the subject (e. g. their being expressed by nouns or noun-equivalents, the correspondence between objects of active constructions and subjects of passive con­structions or vice versa) we should like to point oui some minor points of resemblance between them in the use of the pronoun it.
In simple sentences it is used as an introductory structural subject or object preceding a notional subject or object ex­pressed by an infinitive (or an infinitival complex) or a gerund (a gerundial complex). Cf.:

1. It was difficult to re-
fuse.
2. It is necessary for you
to go there.
3. It was strange his h a-
v in g changed his mind all of a sudden.
1. / felt it difficult tore-
f и s e.
2. I consider it necessary for
you to go there.
3. / thought it strange his
having changed his mind all of a sudden.
I-

In sentences like the often quoted example from Jerome K. Jerome- We therefore decided that we would sleep out on fine nights', and hotel it, and inn it, and pub it, like respectable folks, when it was wet, both the last it which is the subject and the preceding three it's used as objects do not indicate anything in reality, they are purely structural elements in the sentence, syntactical werrd-morptiemes.
§ 450. In Russian, where case inflexions are the most im­portant means of expressing the relations of nouns to other words in the sentence (see § 100), objective complements are primarily divided into direct (expressed by prepositionless 'accusative case' forms) and indirect (all others). Indirect objects are then divided into prepositional and preposition-less.
The number of verbs that may take a direct object is much greater in English than in Russian It is partly due to the fact that the common ease of nouns and the objective case of pronouns in English correspond to all the oblique cases of the Russian language. The Russian сообщать, завидовать, помогать соседу would be rendered by to inform, envy, help the neighbour, обменяться словами, взглядами by exchange words, glances, etc.
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