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iobj: indirect object

  WARNING
⚠️ The traditional term “indirect object”, associated with morphosyntactic encoding of certain types of arguments (especially datives/recipients) in a clause, has a wide range of interpretations across languages and linguistic frameworks. In UD, universal-level relations do not distinguish arguments and adjuncts; rather, the distinction is between core arguments and oblique modifiers. iobj must only be used for core arguments, never for obliques, as described below. The naming of this relation may be changed in the next major revision of the UD guidelines.

In UD, 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)
nsubj(gave, She)

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
obj(a-ra-andik-iish-a, íbárúwa)
iobj(a-ra-andik-iish-a, íkárámu)

In languages distinguishing morphological cases, the recipient will often be marked by the dative case. However, the iobj relation can be used only for a core argument. The morphological dative may signal a core argument in some languages (such as Basque) but in many others it is just oblique (like the English preposition to). For instance, in many Indo-European languages, the recipient should be attached as obl and not iobj, regardless of the traditional grammar which may label it as “indirect object”.

In the following Czech example, the verb takes two objects. Both are nouns in the accusative case, which is rather unusual—for most other verbs, one of the arguments would be in the dative and would thus be treated as oblique in UD. However, a bare accusative signals a core object and a verb with one nominative and two accusatives is ditransitive in UD. One of the accusatives is direct object (patient), the other is indirect (recipient). It is parallel to how the English translation would be annotated (where there is no morphological case marking) and also to verbs of giving in English (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 .
obj(učí, matematiku)
iobj(učí, dceru)
obj(teaches, maths.Acc)
iobj(teaches, daughter.Acc)

Predicates in Basque can cross-reference (by morphological agreement on the auxiliary verb) up to three arguments in different morphological cases: ergative, absolutive, and dative. The morphological cross-reference is a strong indicator that all three are core arguments. Therefore, if all three are present, we have a double-object situation and the dative argument will be iobj (while the ergative argument will be nsubj and the absolutive obj). Even if the absolutive argument is omitted for a verb which licenses three arguments, the dative argument is still iobj.

(Nik)/Case=Erg (zuri)/Case=Dat liburua/Case=Abs eman dizut . \n (I) (you) book given I-have-you-it .
nsubj(eman, (Nik))
iobj(eman, (zuri))
obj(eman, liburua)
aux(eman, dizut)
punct(eman, .-6)
nsubj(given, (I))
iobj(given, (you))
obj(given, book)
aux(given, I-have-you-it)
punct(given, .-13)

Mariari/Case=Dat eman nion liburua/Case=Abs . \n To-Maria given I-have-her-it book .
iobj(eman, Mariari)
obj(eman, liburua)
aux(eman, nion)
punct(eman, .-5)
iobj(given, To-Maria)
obj(given, book)
aux(given, I-have-her-it)
punct(given, .-11)

Mariari/Case=Dat eman nion . \n To-Maria given I-have-her-it .
iobj(eman, Mariari)
aux(eman, nion)
punct(eman, .-4)
iobj(given, To-Maria)
aux(given, I-have-her-it)
punct(given, .-9)

Liburua/Case=Abs eman nion . \n Book given I-have-her-it .
obj(eman, Liburua)
aux(eman, nion)
punct(eman, .-4)
obj(given, Book)
aux(given, I-have-her-it)
punct(given, .-9)

Nevertheless, Basque has also a class of verbs that license only two core arguments, one ergative and one dative. Here the ergative has the A function and the dative the P function (Zúñiga and Fernández 2014), meaning that the dative is obj rather than iobj, as in “The teacher has looked angrily at the students.”

Irakasleak/Case=Erg haserre begiratu die ikasleei/Case=Dat . \n Teacher angrily looked he-has-them to-students .
nsubj(begiratu, Irakasleak)
advmod(begiratu, haserre)
aux(begiratu, die)
obj(begiratu, ikasleei)
punct(begiratu, .-6)
nsubj(looked, Teacher)
advmod(looked, angrily)
aux(looked, he-has-them)
obj(looked, to-students)
punct(looked, .-13)

Another class of transitive verbs in Basque license one dative and one absolutive argument. Here the dative has the A function and the absolutive the P function, meaning that the dative is nsubj and the absolutive is obj, as in “The boy likes the soup very much.”

Zopa/Case=Abs izugarri gustatzen zaio mutilari/Case=Dat . \n Soup greatly pleasing it-is-him to-boy .
obj(gustatzen, Zopa)
advmod(gustatzen, izugarri)
aux(gustatzen, zaio)
nsubj(gustatzen, mutilari)
punct(gustatzen, .-6)
obj(pleasing, Soup)
advmod(pleasing, greatly)
aux(pleasing, it-is-him)
nsubj(pleasing, to-boy)
punct(pleasing, .-13)

In Tagalog, core arguments are marked by the prepositions ang and ng (or by corresponding inflection of personal pronouns), while oblique dependents are typically marked by the preposition sa (sometimes glossed as the dative). Giving somebody something is a (mono)transitive predicate.

# text = Nagbigay ang lalaki ng libro sa babae.
# text_en = The man gave a book to the woman.
1	Nagbigay	bigay	VERB	_	Aspect=Perf|Mood=Ind|VerbForm=Fin|Voice=Act	0	root	_	Gloss=gave
2	ang	ang	ADP	_	Case=Nom	3	case	_	Gloss=the
3	lalaki	lalaki	NOUN	_	_	1	nsubj	_	Gloss=man
4	ng	ng	ADP	_	Case=Gen	5	case	_	_
5	libro	libro	NOUN	_	_	1	obj	_	Gloss=book
6	sa	sa	ADP	_	Case=Dat	7	case	_	Gloss=DIR
7	babae	babae	NOUN	_	_	1	obl	_	Gloss=woman|SpaceAfter=No
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	_	1	punct	_	Gloss=.

However, locative dependents can be topicalized if the verb morphology signals the “locative voice”. Then the locative noun phrase switches to nominative, it becomes a core argument, while the original two core arguments keep core coding, too. Therefore we have a ditransitive clause with three core arguments, even for verbs that are not associated with ditransitives in other languages:

# sent_id = 3.111c/tl
# text = Aalisan ng babae ng bigas ang sako para sa bata.
# gloss = FUT-take.out-DP ACT woman OBJ rice PIV sack BEN child
# text_en = A/the woman will take some rice out of the sack for a/the child.
# DP = directional pivot; PIV = pivot marker
1	Aalisan	alis	VERB	_	Aspect=Prog|Mood=Ind|VerbForm=Fin|Voice=Lfoc	0	root	_	Gloss=will-take-out|MSeg=a-alis-an|MGloss=FUT-take.out-DP
2	ng	ng	ADP	_	Case=Gen	3	case	_	_
3	babae	babae	NOUN	_	_	1	iobj:agent	_	Gloss=woman
4	ng	ng	ADP	_	Case=Gen	5	case	_	_
5	bigas	bigas	NOUN	_	_	1	obj:patient	_	Gloss=rice
6	ang	ang	ADP	_	Case=Nom	7	case	_	Gloss=the
7	sako	sako	NOUN	_	_	1	nsubj:loc	_	Gloss=sack
8	para	para	ADP	_	_	10	case	_	Gloss=for
9	sa	sa	ADP	_	Case=Dat	10	case	_	Gloss=BEN
10	bata	bata	NOUN	_	_	1	obl	_	Gloss=child|SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	_	1	punct	_	Gloss=.

In Plains Cree (Wolvengrey 2011), transitive verbs cross-reference subjects and animate objects but not inanimate objects. With a verb of giving, the theme is typically inanimate while the recipient is typically animate. Assuming that nsubj and obj are reserved for the two core arguments cross-referenced by the verb, the theme has to be iobj (if it is a core argument at all; otherwise it would have to be obl; but real oblique nominals in Plains Cree take a locative case affix, which is not present here).

# text = Nikī-miyāw anima masinahikan.
# text_en = I gave him/her that book.
1	Nikī-miyāw	miy	VERB	_	Animacy=Anim|Mood=Ind|Number[high]=Sing|Number[low]=Sing|Person[high]=1|Person[low]=3|Tense=Past|Voice=Dir	0	root	_	Gloss=I-gave-him/her|MSeg=ni-kī-miy-ā-w|MGloss=1-PAST-give.to-DIR-3SG
2	anima	anima	DET	_	Animacy=Inan|Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	Gloss=that|MGloss=DEM.0's
3	masinahikan	masinahikan	NOUN	_	Animacy=Inan|Number=Sing	1	iobj	_	Gloss=book|SpaceAfter=No
4	.	.	PUNCT	_	_	1	punct	_	Gloss=.

In the above example, the verb stem used is for animate objects, while masinahikan “book” is inanimate. That is a proof that the 3rd person singular cross-reference on the verb does not refer to the book but to an animate recipient that is not overtly represented in the sentence.

If the language has a prototypical iobj (occurring in a double object construction with obj), then morphosyntactic criteria need to be established for when a sole object is obj and when it is iobj.1 Depending on the language, potential reasons to consider a sole object in a clause as an iobj include:

For example, in English, the verb teach may occur with obj, iobj, or both:

She teaches the students introductory logic .
iobj(teaches, students)
obj(teaches, logic)

She teaches introductory logic .
obj(teaches, logic)

She teaches the first-year students .
iobj(teaches, students)

She teaches her students that good writing is important .
iobj(teaches, students)
ccomp(teaches, important)

She teaches her students to write well .
iobj(teaches, students)
xcomp(teaches, write)

However, not all verbs license two objects (or an object plus ccomp), in which case the sole object should be plain obj even if it has recipient-like semantics:

She questions her students about their interests .
obj(questions, students)
obl(questions, interests)

She helps her students to succeed .
obj(helps, students)
xcomp(helps, succeed)

References

  1. This is an amended policy as described on the changes page. ↩

iobj in other languages: [bej] [bg] [cop] [cs] [de] [el] [en] [es] [eu] [fr] [fro] [gsw] [gub] [hy] [it] [ja] [ka] [kk] [la] [no] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ro] [ru] [sl] [ssp] [sv] [swl] [tr] [u] [vi] [xcl] [yue] [zh]