Examkin

Question

Difficulty: EasyNouns and Noun Phrases

In the sentence, 'The newly appointed director gave the dedicated staff some valuable advice,' what is the grammatical function of the noun phrase 'some valuable advice'?

  1. Direct objectAnswer
  2. B
    Indirect object
  3. C
    Subject complement
  4. D
    Object complement

Answer

Direct object
In the clause structure 'subject + verb + indirect object + direct object', the noun phrase 'some valuable advice' answers the question 'gave what?' and thus functions as the direct object of the verb 'gave'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the verb and its clause structure.
The sentence contains the ditransitive verb 'gave', which takes two object positions: a recipient and an entity transferred.
Understanding the verb type determines what noun phrase functions are present in the predicate.
2
Analyze the roles of the post-verbal noun phrases.
'The dedicated staff' is the indirect object (to whom advice was given), while 'some valuable advice' is the direct object (what was given).
The direct object undergoes or represents the primary entity affected by the action of giving.

Key Concept

Grammatical Functions of Noun Phrases (Direct Object in Ditransitive Structures)
Rate this question

Topics

Nouns and Noun Phrases

More questions from this topic