Editing Object (grammar) (section)

{{short description|Grammatical concept}}
{{Grammatical categories}}
{{linguistics}}

In [[linguistics]], an '''object''' is any of several types of [[Argument (linguistics)|arguments]].<ref>For descriptions of the traditional distinction between subject and object, see for instance Freeborn (1995:31) and Kesner Bland (1996:415).</ref> In subject-prominent, [[nominative-accusative]] languages such as [[English language|English]], a [[transitive verb]] typically distinguishes between its [[Subject (linguistics)|subject]] and any of its objects, which can include but are not limited to direct objects,<ref>{{cite news |title=What is a Direct Object? |newspaper=Glossary of Linguistic Terms |date=3 December 2015 |url=https://glossary.sil.org/term/direct-object |publisher=Summer Institute of Linguistics |access-date=14 March 2020}}</ref> indirect objects,<ref>{{cite web |title=What is an Indirect Object? |date=3 December 2015 |url=https://glossary.sil.org/term/indirect-object |publisher=Summer Institute of Linguistics |access-date=14 March 2020}}</ref> and arguments of adpositions ([[Preposition and postposition|prepositions or postpositions]]); the latter are more accurately termed ''oblique arguments'', thus including other arguments not covered by core grammatical roles, such as those governed by [[Grammatical case|case morphology]] (as in languages such as [[Latin]]) or [[relational noun]]s (as is typical for members of the [[Mesoamerican Linguistic Area]]).
In [[ergative-absolutive]] languages, for example most [[Australian Aboriginal languages]], the term "subject" is ambiguous, and thus the term "[[Agent (linguistics)|agent]]" is often used instead to contrast with "object", such that basic word order is often spoken of in terms such as Agent-Object-Verb (AOV) instead of [[Subject-Object-Verb]] (SOV).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Deal |first1=Amy Rose |title=Syntactic Ergativity: Analysis and Identification |journal=Annual Review of Linguistics |date=2016 |volume=2 |pages=165–185 |doi=10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011415-040642|doi-access=free }}</ref> [[Topic-prominent language]]s, such as [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]], focus their grammars less on the subject-object or agent-object dichotomies but rather on the [[Pragmatics|pragmatic]] dichotomy of [[topic and comment]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dikken |first1=Marcel den |title=A comment on the topic of topic–comment |journal=Lingua |date=2003-12-29 |volume=115 |issue=5 |pages=691–710 |doi=10.1016/j.lingua.2003.11.005}}</ref>