0

I read about oprd (object predicative: https://www.thoughtco.com/object-predicative-grammar-1691446) and I was thinking about the following sentences. Am I correctly identifying the direct object and the oprd:

Sentence #1

He found her interesting

direct object: her

oprd: interesting

Spacy classifies it as ccomp instead and no direct object: https://explosion.ai/demos/displacy?text=he%20found%20her%20interesting&model=en_core_web_lg&cpu=1&cph=1

Sentence #2

He made her very happy

direct object: her

oprd: very happy

Sentence #3

he painted me green

direct object: me

oprd: green

3
  • 1
    I've never heard linguists use a contraction "oprd" and I suggest you don't either. I haven't really heard the term "object predicate" either, but if it refers to the adjective phrases, then yes you've identified them correctly.
    – curiousdannii
    Jan 27, 2020 at 1:06
  • Here's some info about this: thoughtco.com/object-predicative-grammar-1691446
    – fersarr
    Jan 27, 2020 at 4:48
  • Added it to the question for reference
    – fersarr
    Jan 27, 2020 at 4:49

1 Answer 1

3

Yes, your analyses are correct. The adjectives interesting, very happy, and green are object predicatives, that is, they are predications over the object each time (not over the subject). The dependency grammar analysis of object predicatives is likely to posit a flat, tertiary branching structure, e.g.

The flatness of these structures is suggestive of the semantic relationship between the object and the predicative adjective, whereby the adjective serves to assign a property to the object: 'She is interesting', 'She is very happy', and 'I am green'.

There is a qualitative difference across your examples that is noteworthy. In the case of interesting and very happy, the meaning of the sentence would shift dramatically if they were not present. The sentences He found her and He made her have drastically different meanings from He found her interesting and He made her very happy. Concerning your third example, however, the shift in meaning across He painted me and He painted me green is only slight. This difference across the examples suggests that interesting and very happy are complements, whereas green is an adjunct. The adjunct status of green is indicated in the third tree with the arrow head pointing away from green towards its governor painted.

Finally, the particular tag used to identify an object predicative expression, i.e. oprd, is somewhat arbitrary, that is, it is the abbreviations used by a particular annotation scheme. Other annotation schemes might use some other abbreviation, e.g. objpd, obprd, etc., or they might call it something entirely different, e.g. xcomp.

1
  • great answer, thank you. Also, thanks for pointing out the adjunct bits, hadn't noticed that difference and the inverted arrow symbology
    – fersarr
    Mar 10, 2020 at 11:57

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.