I can think of lots of nominal prepositional phrases although some are a bit
forced.

Subject: *Behind the table* is where I looked.
Subject Complement: The best part of my day is *after lunch*.
Direct Object: Don't nose about *in my business*.
Object Complement: I bought the best gift *at the party. *(could be
adjectival depending on analysis)
Indirect Object: You might want to give *inside the car* a good cleaning as
well.

Your analysis seems valid to me, Scott.

John


On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 1:14 PM, Scott Woods <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Dear List,
>
> Does it make sense that a prepositional phrase can be used nominally?  If
> it makes sense to substitute "that," "this," "it," or some other pronoun for
> the prepositional phrase, could it make sense to call a prepositional phrase
> a direct object?
>
> For instance: in <he told his friends of the peculiar weather>, does it
> make sense to call "friends" the indirect object and "of the peculiar
> weather" the direct object?  In <he told his friends the truth> would
> "friends" be the indirect object and "truth" the direct object?  In <he told
> his friends> is "friends" a direct object, or an indirect object with an
> implied direct object? In <he told the truth> is there an implied indirect
> object, those who were told? In <he told the truth to his friends> is
> "truth" the direct object and "friends" the indirect object in a
> prepositional phrase? In <he told his friends about the truth> is "friends"
> the indirect object and "about the truth" the direct object? In <he told his
> friends that the truth can be found> is "that the truth can be found" a
> clausal direct object?  How else could these be analyzed?
>
> Thanks for your help,
>
> Scott Woods
>
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