iobj: indirect object
The indirect object of a verb is any nominal phrase that is a core argument of the verb but is not its subject or direct object. The prototypical example is the recipient of ditransitive verbs of exchange:
She gave me a raise
iobj(gave, me)
However, many languages allow other semantic roles as additional objects. The most common case is allowing benefactives, but some languages allow other roles. Examples include instruments, such as in the Kinyarwanda example below, or comitatives. At the other extreme, some languages lack all indirect objects.
Umukoóbwa a-ra-andik-iish-a íbárúwa íkárámu \n girl 1-PRS-write-APPL-ASP letter pen
dobj(a-ra-andik-iish-a, íbárúwa)
iobj(a-ra-andik-iish-a, íkárámu)
In languages distinguishing morphological cases, the indirect object will often be marked by the dative case. However, verb valency may occasionally dictate that the direct object is in dative, or that the indirect objects shall take various other forms.
In the following Czech example, the verb takes two arguments, both are nouns in the accusative case. One of them is direct object (patient), the other is indirect (addressee). It is parallel to how the English translation would be annotated (where there is no morphological case marking) and also to verbs of giving (consider a similar sentence, he gave my daughter a class of maths).
On učí mou dceru matematiku . \n He teaches my daughter.Acc maths.Acc .
dobj(učí, matematiku)
iobj(učí, dceru)
dobj(teaches, maths.Acc)
iobj(teaches, daughter.Acc)
In general, if there is just one object, it should be labeled dobj, regardless of the morphological case or semantic role. For example, in English, teach can take either the subject matter or the recipient as the only object, and in both cases it would be analyzed ad the dobj:
She teaches introductory logic
dobj(teaches, logic)
She teaches the first-year students
dobj(teaches, students)
This is consistent with the analysis of Huddleston and Pullum (2002) “The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language”, chapter 4 section 4 (p. 251). As they note, it is no different to the same semantic role being sometimes the subject and sometimes the object in intransitive/transitive alternations. The one exception is when there is a clausal complement. Then the clausal complement is regarded as a “clausal direct object” and an object nominal will be an iobj, parallel to the simple ditransitive case:
She told the students that they needed to study this evening
iobj(told, students)
ccomp(told, needed)
She told the students the plan
iobj(told, students)
dobj(told, plan)
If there are two or
more objects, one of them should be dobj and the others should be
iobj. In such cases it is necessary to decide what is the
most directly affected object (patient). If possible,
language-specific documentation should help identify direct and
indirect objects.
iobj in other languages: [bg] [cs] [de] [el] [en] [es] [eu] [fa] [fr] [ga] [he] [hu] [it] [ja] [ko] [sv] [u]