The object

In both contrasted languages there can be distinguished the following types of objects: 1) according to the type of connection with a verb or some other governing word – prepositional object and non-prepositional object (прийменниковий та безприйменниковий додатки); 2) according to the grammatical meaning – direct and indirect objects (прямий та непрямий додатки).

3.1. The direct object. In Ukrainian the direct object is as a rule expressed by the form of the accusative case of the noun, pronoun or some other substantivized part of speech. It is used without a preposition and depends directly on the transitive verb, for example: Я бачив дивний сон (І. Франко).

The peculiarity of the Ukrainian language is the fact that at negation (similar to the Russian language) the direct object can be expressed in the form of the genitive case, for example: Він не читав газет. The object is expressed via the same form when the action, expressed by the transitive verb, is directed not upon the whole object, but only on its part, for example: Я дав йому води. Ми купили меду.

The specific features of the Ukrainian language are:

1. The parallel use of two forms in plural in order to define the names of living beings (except the people’s names). While the direct object, used to define the names of people, has the form of the accusative case, common with the form of the genitive case, to define the names of animals, it is used both in the form common with the genitive case, and in the form common with the accusative case: виховую дітей, but доглядаю овець (вівці), кіз (кози).

2. The usage of the direct object in the form of the genitive case singular to define the temporary ceasing by the action of the object, upon which it is directed, or sometimes altogether without any special features: взяв ножа, попросив олівця, одержав листа.

The usage of the direct object in the form of the genitive case is met at defining inanimate objects in plural: співали веселих пісень (in parallel with співали пісні).

In English the direct object can be expressed by the noun only in the common case or the pronoun in the objective case. It is one of the subtypes of non-prepositional objects.

In English there are a lot of verbs that have either a very indistinct meaning or a lot of different meanings, which because of the mentioned fact demand the obligatory use of some object. Such are the verbs take, make, give, hold, know, have, find, introduce, put on, take off etc. In case when an object is absent there should be used a formal object expressed by the pronoun it, for example: I find it strange that he did not come.

The formal object of such a type is also used after the verbs, formed by the way of conversion from nouns, and that is why they cannot be perceived without an object in their new function. Compare: … we would sleep out on fine nights and hotel it, and inn it, and pub it … when it was wet (Jerome K. Jerome).

The direct object always occupies some certain position in the sentence. If there are no other objects besides it, the direct object is, as a rule, situated immediately after the verb. The separation of the direct object from the verb is witnessed when there is an indirect object before a direct one or because of some stylistic purposes some of secondary parts of the sentence cannot be separated from the predicate (compare: She took out of her bag an envelope).

The English direct object reveals such a peculiarity that it can be complex. The complex object of such a type is as a rule expressed by the predicative construction with the infinitive, for example: I saw him go home (Я бачив, як він пішов додому). Besides, there are complex objects expressed by predicative constructions with the participle or the gerund, for example: We watched her going away. My lady assures him of his being worth no complaint from her
(Ch. Dickens).

In certain cases the predicate in English can have two direct objects simultaneously, for example: I asked him a question (Я дав йому запитання). In Ukrainian it is impossible [5; 131–133].

3.2. The indirect object. In Ukrainian the indirect object is used in the form of any indirect case either with the preposition or without it (except the accusative case without the preposition, which serves to express the direct object): Електростанція буде нам посилати енергію по проводах.

While the direct object depends only on the verb, the indirect object can be dependent also on the noun or the adjective, for example: близький нам, керівник гуртка, найкращий за всіх, гірший над усе. Most often these are nouns or adjectives that have the base common with the verb, besides them these are also adjectives in the comparative and superlative degrees.

In English the indirect object does not differ formally from the direct object: both of them are expressed by the form of the common case (in pronouns – by the objective case). That is why the grammatical means of expressing the indirect object are the position of a word in a sentence as well as the structural completeness of a word-group. First of all, the indirect object is used only in a three-member word-group that is at the obligatory presence of the direct object and it is necessarily positioned before the direct object: I give him a letter. As a rule the indirect object denotes a person to whom some action is addressed or because of whom the action takes place.

The interesting peculiarity of the English language is the fact that here the object with the preposition can serve as an equivalent of the subject of some passive construction, for example: He was laughed at.

Generally speaking, in English prepositional objects are especially widely used. Among them the most characteristic are objects with the prepositions by, to and with. The object with the preposition by denotes not the object of the action, but the doer himself/herself, and is used with the passive predicate (or with the passive participle). The preposition in this case is almost fully grammaticalized and devoid of lexical meaning. This cannot be mentioned about the preposition with, which alongside with the instrumental meaning (with a knife – ножем) can have the meaning of commonness (with my friend – з моїм другом). The object with the preposition to is sometimes equaled to the indirect object. In reality it has a wider meaning than the indirect object and that is why it cannot be always used instead of it. Besides, these two kinds of objects occupy a different position in the sentence.

Objects with prepositions are, as a rule, placed after direct and indirect ones. On the first position in a sentence they can be met only in case, when there is an emphasis (the expressive strengthening of the meaning) connected with it, for example: From her we’ve never got any letters [5; 133–134].