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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Familar or Forbidden?


Dear x28de,
“Can you give more examples for type III indirect objects with/ without the "to", and if there are cases where the "to" is necessary or forbidden?”

Indirect objects occur only in Pattern III sentences.  That is the definition of the Pattern III Simple Sentences, that it has the indirect object: NS-TV-NIO-NDO.  If you put in a “to”, you instantly throw it back into the category of the less sophisticated, less sophisticated, less complicated Pattern II: NS-TV-ND.


You can say "You give me it!" for "You give it to me!"

Some English speakers may say "Give it me!", but that is because in their part of England, they tend to drop articles and such.  You can see that the "to" has been left out in "Give it to me".  In North America, “Give it me.” would sound really foreign.  "Give to me it!" is not forbidden . . . but it sounds wrong to the English ear.  We would never say that.  It sounds definitely like a foreigner translating word-for-word into English.  Maybe we will have to coin a new word “Googletalk” for that instant translation.

I just heard a radio talk show host say "Pitch me."  She meant "Pitch that story idea to me."  In advertising and show business you 'pitch' or throw an idea at a particular idea and hope that they 'catch' or accept it.  But you can see from this example how a familiar expression in a familiar context can be reduced to its bare bones and still be understood.  That is the essence of the laconic hero in the American Western.  The style is used to great effect by Robert B. Parker in Blue-Eyed Devil.

OK...I answered that twice.  Hope it helps.  Now about emphasis...

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