Objects & Modifiers

Adverbial Objectives & Retained Objects

Some noun phrases after a verb are not objects at all: they answer an adverb’s question, such as how long? or how far? This page also shows what happens to an object in the passive, and how the word there can fill the subject position.

What you’ll learn

Identify and diagram an adverbial objective, a noun phrase doing an adverb's job
Test whether a noun phrase after a verb is a direct object
Find the retained object in a passive sentence and diagram it
Find the real subject in a sentence with the expletive 'there'

Adverbial objectives: nouns doing an adverb’s job

The lecture lasted an hour. — an hour stands where a direct object would, but nothing was done to it. It answers how long?, which is an adverb’s question.

That is an adverbial objective: a noun phrase that does the job of an adverb. So the diagram treats it like an adverb and puts it below the word it modifies, not on the base line. It uses the shape of an indirect object: a diagonal with no word on it, then a horizontal line for the noun.

It measures time, distance, weight or price, and it can modify an adjective or an adverb as well as a verb:

We waited an hour. — how long.
It has rained every day this week. — two of them, both saying when.
This plane can go 500 miles an hour. — miles and hour both modify can go. The parser attaches an hour to miles, so in the Roles exercise the box for an hour sits inside the box for 500 miles an hour.
The Statue of Liberty is 93 meters tall. — this one modifies the adjective tall.
Diego arrived an hour early. — this one modifies the adverb early.

Ask which question it answers
How long? How far? How much? How often? When? These are adverb questions. A direct object answers what? or whom? For the example: The lecture lasted how long? → an hour.
Try the passive test on a noun phrase
A direct object can usually become the subject of a passive sentence. An hour was lasted by the lecture is impossible, so an hour is not a direct object. A failure is a hint, not proof: a few transitive verbs cannot be made passive at all. An infinitive object fails the test too (see Infinitives).
Diagram it below the word it modifies
Put it on a horizontal line under the verb, or under the adjective or adverb it modifies. Join that line to the word with a diagonal that carries no word. It is the indirect object’s shape, but the noun answers an adverb’s question.

“The lecture lasted an hour.”

Reed-Kellogg — below the verb like an adverb, reached by an empty diagonal

det Determiner
nsubj Nominal subject
ROOT Root of the sentence
npadvmod Noun phrase as adverbial modifier

Dependency — npadvmod, not dobj

Comparing the two views

Both views agree that this is not a direct object. Reed-Kellogg moves it off the base line. The dependency tree keeps it in its place but gives it its own label, npadvmod (“noun phrase as adverbial modifier”), instead of dobj.

The parser does not always recognise it. After wait, cost or weigh, it often labels the measure dobj, like an ordinary object: We waited an hour, A haircut costs thirty dollars. The diagram and the Roles exercise instead treat the measure as an Adverbial objective. So for these verbs the two views disagree on purpose, and in the Dependencies exercise the answer is usually the parser’s dobj.

Retained objects

A passive verb normally has no direct object, because the object of the active sentence has become its subject (see active and passive voice). Verbs with two objects, such as give, send, show and offer, are the exception. Their indirect object can become the subject of the passive, and the direct object then stays after the verb. That object is the retained object.

Grandma sent Luis a postcard → Luis was sent a postcard. Luis is now the subject, and a postcard is still the direct object. Diagram it in the direct-object slot, exactly where it was in the active sentence. If the direct object becomes the subject instead, nothing is retained: A postcard was sent to Luis.

Find the passive verb
A form of be plus a past participle. In Omar was handed a ticket, it is was handed.
Rebuild the active sentence
Make the doer the subject again. If the sentence names no doer, use someone: Someone handed Omar a ticket.
Look at what is still after the verb
In the active sentence, Omar is the indirect object. So the noun phrase still after the passive verb, a ticket, is the retained object.

“Luis was sent a postcard.”

Reed-Kellogg — the retained object stays in the direct-object slot

nsubjpass Passive nominal subject
auxpass Passive auxiliary
ROOT Root of the sentence
det Determiner
dobj Direct object

Dependency — the retained object is still dobj

Comparing the two views

Neither view has a special mark for a retained object. Reed-Kellogg keeps postcard on the base line, behind the half vertical of a direct object. The tree labels it dobj, and Luis, the indirect object of the active sentence, is nsubjpass: a passive subject. In the Roles exercise, a postcard is a Direct object.

The expletive there

In There was a storm last night, the word there is not a place. It is a placeholder: it fills the subject position before the verb, and the real subject, a storm, comes after the verb.

To find the real subject, change the number of the noun after the verb. The verb changes with it: There was one storm, There were two storms. So the verb agrees with storm, not with there.

Diagram the real subject in the subject slot. Put there on a short line above it, attached to nothing, because it fills a position but adds no meaning. This is a line with no connection, the kind the diagram also uses for a person being addressed.

“There was a storm last night.”

Reed-Kellogg — the real subject in the subject slot, There on a line above

expl Expletive
ROOT Root of the sentence
det Determiner
attr Attribute
amod Adjectival modifier
npadvmod Noun phrase as adverbial modifier

Dependency — There is expl, storm is attr, night is npadvmod

Comparing the two views

Reed-Kellogg moves storm into the subject slot and floats There above it. The tree keeps the word order and has no nsubj at all. There is expl, and storm is attr: the label the parser also gives a noun after a linking verb. So in the Dependencies exercise, the real subject is an attr. Both views hang last night under the verb as an adverbial objective (npadvmod).

Quick check

In Nina swims every morning, which words are an adverbial objective? How can you tell?
Answer
Every morning. It answers when? or how often?, which are adverb questions, and nothing is done to it, so it is not a direct object. The diagram hangs it below swims on an empty diagonal, and the tree labels morning npadvmod.
Marta weighs the suitcase. The suitcase weighs twenty kilos. In which sentence is the noun phrase after the verb a direct object?
Answer
Only in the first. The suitcase answers what?, and the passive works: The suitcase is weighed by Marta. In the second, twenty kilos answers how much?, and Twenty kilos are weighed by the suitcase is impossible, so it is an adverbial objective. The parser still labels it dobj, as it often does after weigh, but the diagram and the Roles exercise treat it as an Adverbial objective.
In Priya was offered a job, which noun phrase is the retained object, and where does it go in the diagram?
Answer
A job. In the active sentence, The bank offered Priya a job, Priya is the indirect object and a job is the direct object. The passive makes Priya the subject, and a job stays after the verb. Draw it in the direct-object slot after was offered, behind a half vertical. The tree still labels it dobj, and the Roles exercise boxes it as a Direct object.
What is the real subject of There are two exits, and how does the verb show it?
Answer
Two exits. The verb agrees with it: There is one exit, but There are two exits, never There is two exits ✗. There only fills the subject position. In the diagram, exits goes in the subject slot with There on a line above it. In the tree, There is expl and exits is attr.

Key terms

Adverbial objective: A noun phrase answering an adverb’s question — how long, how far, how much, when — drawn below the word it modifies like an indirect object. Relation npadvmod when the parser recognises it. The diagram draws a bare today or home as an adverb instead. We waited an hour. It has rained every day this week.
See: Adverbs
Retained object: The direct object that stays after a passive verb when the indirect object has become the subject. She was given a medal. — medal is still a direct object (dobj). We were told the truth.
See: Indirect Objects & Complements
Expletive: A word that fills a grammatical slot but adds no meaning. The common case is there in the subject position: the real subject comes after the verb, and the verb agrees with it. Relation expl. There is a pharmacy nearby. There are two buses every hour.
See: Function Word Relations

Practice on a real sentence

This sentence has no adverbial objective, retained object or expletive. It still practises the question behind all three: what job does a noun phrase do? In the Dependencies exercise, find the head of one, the word its arrow comes from. Is that one the object of a verb or of a preposition?

Loading the practice sentence…