Craig,

The specialized ESL dictionaries, like the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary or the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English include grammatical patterns in their definitions, and for a word like "hit" there will be two entries, one as a transitive and one as a ditransitive.  The distinction is important because in different patterns verbs may have slightly different meanings.  Those dictionaries do a very careful and rigorous analysis of verb patterns, far beyond the five to eight most of us teach.  They both have around fifty.  Of course, if you look at Beth Levin's book on English verb patterns, you'll find about 330.

Herb


-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Craig Hancock
Sent: Tue 11/28/2006 3:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Prepositional phrase as an indirect object
 
Herb,
   I'm right with you with the whole analysis (both posts), but can't help
feeling that "hit" may not be intentional in some contexts. If it's
outfield practice, then "the coach hit the ball to me" would imply it's
my turn. If I'm in the field, then "to me" is probably not something
the batter intended. It may mean something closer to "the batter hit
the ball to right field", much more adverbial in nuance.
   I do want to vote, though, for the semantic label to remain in both
positions if the meaning includes intention. I like the functional
analysis. The new information shifts to the end.  "What did he hit to
me?"  "He hit me the ball."  "Who did he hit the ball to?" "He hit the
ball to me."

Craig
   >

 "hit" as a ditransitive verb licenses an indirect object.  Whether that
> IO shows up post-verbally or after the DO is a matter, in part, of
> whether it's new or old information.  But part of the confusion is that
> we use IO both functionally and structurally.  Functionally "to me" is
> the patient, not an adverb.  Structurally whether it's an adverb depends
> on whether it behaves like an adverb.
>
> We can say "(intentionally) Jack (intentionally) hit the ball
> (intentionally) to me (intentionally)," that is, the manner adverb can
> occur in any of those four positions.  "To me" doesn't have the same
> mobility because it's a complement of "hit" rather than a modifier.
> This suggests that it's not adverbial, at least not in the same sense
> that "intentionally" is.
>
> Herb
>
>
> I'd go with an adverbial prepositional phrase.  'To me' certainly
> modifies 'hit', does it not?  Is it different than "Jack hit the ball
> quickly?"
>
> Edward Vavra wrote:
>>     I was recently asked about "to me" in the sentence "Jack hit the
>> ball to me." Is "to me" an adverbial prepositional phrase, or can it
>> be considered a prepositional phrase that functions as an indirect
>> object, i.e., as a noun? My question is--Do members of this list agree
>
>> on one or the other explanation, or is their disagreement?
>> Thanks,
>> Ed
>>
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>
> James Sebastian Bear
> Montpelier Public School
> www.montpelier.k12.nd.us/classroom.html
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