I'm wondering how to break dow the following sentences-

I asked my mother for help.

I asked my mother to bake some cookies.

Now, would mother be the direct object in both sentences?

Would the phrases "for help" and "to bake some cookies" be adverbial phrases modifying asked?

Thanks!
Brett

You are half-right! "My mother" is direct object in both sentences, but "for help" and "to bake some cookies" are not adverbials.

(1) I asked my mother for help.

(2) I asked my mother to bake some cookies.

In (1) "my mother" is direct object of "asked" and the PP "for help" is complement of "asked".

In (2) "my mother" is again direct object of "asked", but the infinitival clause "to bake some cakes" can be analysed in two ways:

Option 1

Treat it as part of the direct object, so the object of "asked" in full is "my mother to bake some cookies". Within that object there would be another direct object "some cookies. In other words, "my mother to bake some cookies" is object of "asked" and "some cookies" is object of "bake".

Option 2

Others (including me) would analyse the infinitival clause "to bake some cookies" as a complement of “asked”, so "my mother" is the grammatical object of "asked" and at the same time the semantic (understood) subject of "to bake some cookies". This kind of analysis is called 'catenative' meaning chain of verbs, because the verbs "asked" and "bake" are in a kind of chain with just "my mother" separating them.


PaulM

Hi Paul,

In that first sentence where you said "for help" is a complement-what kind of complement? It doesn't seem like an indirect object. It does seem to really complete the meaning of the verb stating specifically what was asked.

Thanks,
Brett

It's not an indirect object (though objects, both direct and indirect, are types of complement). Complements complete the verb phrase; sometimes they are obligatory, sometimes optional.

The concept of 'complement' is sometimes difficult to grasp, and this is not helped by the fact that many grammarians disagree as to how much should be subsumed under the function 'complement'. For example, some restrict it to 'core' complements (noun phrases, as in "Kim gave Pat the key"), taking the presence of the preposition in, say, "He alluded to her letter" as sufficient to make the post-verbal element an adjunct (adverbial).

I take a broader approach and prefer this definition of complement:

'A syntactic element seen as completing the construction (syntactic concept is better than semantic) of another element'. It applies to elements which are within the valency of a verb or other lexical unit. 'Valency' means the range of syntactic elements either required or specifically permitted by a verb or other lexical unit' – which is equivalent to licensing (see below).

The dependents of the verb comprise two main types: complements and adjuncts. The admissibility of a complement depends on the verb belonging to a particular subclass of verbs. The term to describe this is licensing: complements have to be licensed by their head.

There's clearly a lot more that I could tell you about complements and licensing, but suffice to say here that in your example "for help" is licensed by the verb "asked". It is required to complete the verb phrase, unlike in, say, "I had breakfast in bed" where the PP "in bed" is an optional adjunct of place, not a complement.

May I ask, are you a linguistics student in the UK or elsewhere?



PaulM

Ok, wow, that's getting pretty complicated. I like that your explanation for the phrases "for help" and "to bake some cookies" is the same (complements) since it looks to me like whatever they do it should be the same in both sentences. From my amateur perspective they seem somewhat adverbial because they kind of answer "why" I asked.

I'm not actually studying linguistics, but just reviewing grammar so I can write better. I live in California and work as an engineer.

Thanks for your help!
Brett

No, Brett, you've got that slightly wrong.

If anything, "for help" and "to bake some cookies" answer the question "what" not "why". What did she ask her mother for? answer = "help". And what did she ask her mother to do; answer = "bake some cookies".

A "why" adverbial (or reason adjunct) would be:

I asked my mother for help because I didn't know how to make cookies.
I asked my mother to bake some cookies because the larder was empty.

In those examples, the underlined expressions are 'reason' adjuncts (adverbials); they answer the question why I asked my mother ...

Does that make things a tad clearer?


PaulM