"The Transitive Verb Patterns" lecture I delivered in my English 402--Grammar course at the State University of New York College at Cortland.

1. The Transitive
Verb Patterns
Ed McCorduck
English 402--Grammar
SUNY Cortland
http://mccorduck.cortland.edu

2. recall:
intransitive:
• does not take an object (traditional grammar definition)
• does not require a direct object or a complement
(descriptive grammar definition)
ergo,
transitive:
• takes an object (traditional grammar definition)
• requires a direct object (descriptive grammar definition)
slide 2: transitive vs. intransitive verbs
English 402:
Grammar

3. Pattern VII
NP1 V-tr NP2
(subj) (pred vb) (dir obj)
• “dir obj” is direct object
• direct object: entity (usually) directly affected by the action of a
transitive verb
slide 3: Pattern VII
English 402:
Grammar

4. exx
The man | kissed | the woman.
NP1 V-tr NP2
I | baked | a cake.
NP1 V-tr NP2
The airline | flies | big jets.
NP1 V-tr NP2
(Note that in this last example the airline really doesn’t “do” anything to
or affect the jets in any way, but this sentence is still classified as a
Pattern VII sentence with a transitive verb.)
slide 4: examples of Pattern VII sentences
English 402:
Grammar

5. slide 5: Reed-Kellogg diagram of a Pattern VII sentence
English 402:
Grammar
In Reed-Kellogg diagrams, the headword of a noun phrase
that functions as the direct object is placed on the main line
after the verb and separated from it by a vertical line which,
unlike the vertical line separating a sentence’s subject from
its predicate, does not bisect the main line but remains
perpendicular to it. To illustrate, here is the diagram of the
Pattern VII sentence I baked a cake in which the headword of
the direct object cake is separated from the verb baked by a
vertical line:

6. Pattern VIII
NP1 V-tr NP2 NP3
(subj) (pred vb) (indir obj) (dir obj)
• “indir obj” is indirect object
• indirect object: (normally animate) entity that is indirectly
affected by the action of the verb, i.e., the “recipient” or
“beneficiary” of the action
slide 6: Pattern VIII
English 402:
Grammar

7. exx
He | sent | the IRS | a nasty note.
NP1 V-tr NP2 NP3
She | cooked | her husband | a hearty meal.
NP1 V-tr NP2 NP3
slide 7: examples of Pattern VIII sentences
English 402:
Grammar

8. Most transitive verbs that can be used in Pattern VIII
sentences can also appear in Pattern VII sentences (but the
reverse is generally not true):
He sent the IRS a nasty note.
V-tr dir obj
He sent a nasty note.
She cooked her husband a hearty meal.
V-tr dir obj
She cooked a hearty meal.
She cooked her husband.
dir obj
slide 8: verbs occurring both Pattern VII and Pattern VIII sentences
English 402:
Grammar

9. Instead of requiring a structure in which the indirect object
precedes the direct object, many verbs occurring in Pattern
VIII sentences can enter into alternate structures where the
direct object comes before the indirect object which actually
becomes the noun phrase in a prepositional phrase headed
usually by to or for. For example, the sentence He sent the IRS
a nasty note can be “transformed” into He sent a nasty note to
the IRS, and the relationship between these two sentences is
schematized below:
He sent the IRS a nasty note.
indir obj dir obj
He sent a nasty note to the IRS.
dir obj indir obj
slide 9: alternate Pattern VIII sentences with PPs
English 402:
Grammar

10. Knowing about these alternate forms of Pattern VIII sentences
can actually help us understand the reasons that Reed-
Kellogg diagrams for sentences of this pattern are drawn the
ways they are. Take our first example set; if we diagram the
second variant He sent a nasty note to the IRS, the diagram
will be as follows:
slide 10: Reed-Kellogg diagrams of alternate Pattern VIII sentences with PPs
English 402:
Grammar

11. The diagram of He sent the IRS a nasty note is exactly the same
in that the indirect object the IRS is indicated as a
prepositional phrase under the main verb sent with the only
but important difference that since the preposition to is not
used in this structure where the indirect object the IRS
precedes the direct object a nasty note, it is omitted from the
diagram:
slide 11: Reed-Kellogg diagrams of PP-less Pattern VIII sentences
English 402:
Grammar

12. Similarly, if the diagram of She made a hearty meal for her
husband is examined first,
slide 12: Reed-Kellogg diagram of an alternate Pattern VIII sentence with a PP headed by for
English 402:
Grammar

13. the diagram of She made her husband a hearty meal falls out
from it:
slide 13: another Reed-Kellogg diagram of a PP-less Pattern VIII sentence
English 402:
Grammar