The indirect object marks who or what is the recipient of the action indicated by the verb.
Indirect complement is an expression framed in traditional grammar that identifies a syntactic constituent that is governed by a verb characterized by its transitivity . Expressed another way, it is a syntactic function that is linked to the dative case and serves to account for who is the beneficiary, recipient, addressee or experiencer of the circumstance marked by the verb to which it is complementing.
In many Romance languages, when the so-called indirect object turns out to be a noun phrase , the preposition 'a' or, if applicable, "al" is used to introduce it into the sentence ( 'para' has been another frequent alternative at some point of History but, today, this case is not framed as an indirect complement but as a circumstantial complement ).
If the indirect object is an unstressed clitic pronoun , then the use of a preposition is not required.
It should be noted that the indirect object is an effective resource when detailing data (or adding precision) and when emphasizing a phrase. Nor should we overlook that, unlike what happens when it is used within the Spanish language, its application and recognition presents greater complexity in the English language. The latter is due to the lack of clitic pronouns directly associated with the indirect object in English speech .
Differences between indirect object and direct object
It is essential to keep in mind and well understand the theoretical definitions of both the indirect and the direct complement in order to understand what differences there are between the two.
Experts in syntax and grammar highlight, first of all, that the indirect object is generally used in order to designate, to a greater extent, exponents of the animal kingdom or people. Although the direct object can also be associated with living beings, it is more common for it to refer to inanimate objects.
The indirect object can be omitted without affecting the content or conditioning the correct interpretation of the message since it provides extra optional information. The direct object , for its part, is always located within the predicate and is essential to understand what is being expressed since it constitutes what the verb is exercising the action on. This last complement is defined in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) as a syntactic function associated with the accusative case that is made possible by a prepositional phrase that includes the preposition "a" in its structure or a phrase that is either pronominal or nominal that are connected with the transitive verb to which they are modifying.
Recognition tests
There are several recognition tests to identify either the indirect complement or the direct complement without major complications.
In the case of wanting to look for the indirect object , a first simple and quick step after having distinguished between subject and predicate is to locate the prepositions mentioned above: para or a. It is also suggested to establish what the indirect object is from questions oriented to the verb such as "for whom?" that? whom?" .
Another widely used confirmation strategy revolves around the act of substituting or replacing the indirect object with an unstressed dative pronoun.
A prepositional phrase or an unstressed dative pronoun that indicates to whom something is addressed or intended constitutes the so-called indirect object.
Examples of indirect object
To complement the knowledge obtained based on theory, it is worth stopping at different practical cases and thus working on examples of indirect complement that help to better assimilate the definition.
By proposing a random sentence that includes an indirect object that must be located: "I brought a gift to my father." In this statement there are two indirect complements : 'him' and 'to my father' .
Another valid option to take as a reference in order to minimize confusion: "Felipe obtained benefits for his friends" , with 'for his friends' being the circumstantial complement .
More examples that invite you to exercise the recognition of the indirect object of each sentence :
«A young novelist was awarded a medal», «At the end of the party they distributed souvenirs to the guests», "They gave my sister shocking news", "César prepared a barbecue for Irene".
Syntactic analysis allows us to recognize the different parts that make up a sentence: core of the subject (a pronoun or noun), core of the predicate (verb), etc.
Varieties
The indirect complement , according to the particularities it presents, can be classified into different categories.
One of them encompasses the group of non-argumentary or unselected indirect complements . Within this, it is baptized as an indirect complement of interest (or dative of interest ), which serves to indicate the thing or subject that is harmed or benefited as a result of the verbal action.
We work, in the same way, with the idea of the indirect complement of possession as a way of explaining what and how the possessive or sympathetic dative is. There are also indirect complements , as can be seen from practice, which are designated as experimenters or experimenters .
It is enriching to propose that, in another framework, indirect argumentative or selected complements achieve visibility. These are linked to the argument of the statement, therefore, they cannot be discarded.