Patty and Scott,

 

I think Patty is on the right track.  The noun clause is the object of the prepositional verb “convince of” whereas “us” is in the role of direct object.  Something convinces someone of something.  The preposition is regularly omitted when its object is a (factive noun) clause.   

 

What is interesting is that the dative (or benefactive) appears with the prepositional object of this same sort.  However, the person to whom or for whom the particular action of the verb is performed cannot be expressed with a  factive noun clause, so the confusion does not occur with the loss of the preposition.  The preposition is regularly omitted when its object is a pronoun and/or it is placed before the object of the verb.  This, of course, is the so-called indirect object, and its surface structure is very similar to the former case of an omitted preposition. 

 

 

 

A return question…

 

If we take the original sentence down a bit, we have <language convinces us>.  My eyes read <us> as the direct object, which would then make <that a…explanation> the clause that answers the question “What” (as in, what does the language convince us).  So…why would we take <us> as the indirect object?

 

-patty

 

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott Woods
Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 9:40 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: "convinces us that..."?

 

List, I have a few questions about the following sentence: <Poe's language, however, gradually convinces us that a purely rational explanation will not suffice, however neatly it fits the external facts. >   Would you take <us> as the indirect object? Would you take the <that> clause after it as the direct object? Is this analogous to <He showed us a monkey>? Does <convince> always take a noun clause object when it takes an direct object? In <He convinced us>, is <us> now the direct object, that is, we were the convinced ones, or is there still an implied clausal direct object leaving <us> as an indirect object?   Thanks, Scott Woods

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