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This page pertains to UD version 2.

obj: object

The object of a verb is the second most core argument of a verb after the subject. Typically, it is the noun phrase that denotes the entity acted upon or which undergoes a change of state or motion (the proto-patient).

She gave me a raise
obj(gave, raise)

In languages distinguishing morphological cases, the object will often be marked by the accusative case. If a verb dictates another case (dative, genitive…), the fundamental question is whether such cases qualify as core in the given language. Often these cases are oblique, regardless of the presence or absence of an adposition. Consequently they cannot use the obj relation and must use obl, even if the traditional grammar calls such dependents “objects”.

If there are two or more objects, one of them should be obj and the others should be iobj. In such cases it is necessary to decide what is the most directly affected object (patient). If there is just one object, it should likely be obj unless it is morphosyntactically more similar to clear cases of iobj in the language than it is to prototypical patient arguments.

There is further discussion of the two kinds of object at iobj. If possible, language-specific documentation should be available to help identify the primary (or direct) object.


obj in other languages: [bej] [bg] [bm] [cop] [cs] [de] [el] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [eu] [fi] [fr] [fro] [ga] [gsw] [hy] [it] [ja] [ka] [kk] [kmr] [ky] [mr] [no] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ro] [ru] [sl] [ssp] [sv] [swl] [tr] [u] [uz] [vi] [xcl] [yue] [zh]