Move the IO after the DO:

Caretakers (teach) politeness formulas children.

Step 2: Insert to/for in front of the moved IO:

Caretakers (teach) politeness formulas to children.

Her confident tone (sent) the audience a strong message.

Step 1: Move the IO after the DO:

Her confident tone (sent) a strong message the audience.

Step 2: Insert to/for in front of the moved IO:

Her confident tone (sent) a strong message to the audience.

In all three sentences, the first NP after the verb could be moved and the mean-ing is preserved. The IO movement test proves that all three sentences follow the Pattern 6 structure. Note that once the IO is moved and “to” or “for” is placed in front of it, it is no longer an IO. It becomes the object of a preposition in a prepo-sitional phrase. Move it back into its original position, and the NP takes on its role as the IO again.

Now let’s examine our last pattern, Pattern 7. Like Pattern 6, it can have two NPs following the transitive verb.

Pattern 7, Subject-TV-DO-OC

The object complement (OC) follows the direct object. The OC can be an NP or an adjective. When it is an NP, the sentence can look like Pattern 6, which also has two NPs after the transitive verb. The job of the OC is to refer back to the DO. In the sentence below, the OC (their national language) is referring back to the DO (Swahili).

Kenyans (made) Swahili their national language.

Subject TV DO OC Below are more examples of this pattern:

Sentence Patterns 87

The American Dialect Society (named) “occupy” the 2011 Word of the Year.

Subject TV DO OC

Marian (considers) linguistics her favorite class.

Subject TV DO OC

Our founding fathers (did) not (make) English our official language.

Subject TV DO OC

How do you know whether the two NPs after the transitive verb are Pattern 6 (IO DO) or Pattern 7 (DO OC)? Start with the IO movement test. If it works, then it is the IO DO pattern (Pattern 6). If it doesn’t work, then check to see whether the second NP after the transitive verb refers back to the NP in front of it. If it does, then it is the DO OC pattern. Let’s try the IO movement test using the second ex-ample above (which is kind of cheating because we already know that it is a DO OC pattern and not an IO DO pattern):

Original sentence:

Marion (considers) linguistics her favorite class.

? ? IO movement test applied:

*Marion (considers) her favorite class to/for linguistics.

The IO movement test doesn’t work (surprise!), indicating that it is not a Pattern 6 sentence (IO DO). Let’s check to see whether the second NP is describing the first NP following the transitive verb (evidence for Pattern 7, DO OC).

Marion (considers) linguistics her favorite class.

It works! Her favorite class refers back to or describes linguistics. We made the decision that the two NPs are DO OC by first checking to see whether the IO movement test worked (it failed) and then by examining the relationship between the two NPs. Notice the same relationship between the DO and the OC in the next two sentences:

The students (made) bilingual education the focus of their report.

Canada (considers) English and French essential languages for its citizens.

The DO and OC are so closely related that you could put an equal sign between the two NPs to illustrate that relationship:

bilingual education = the focus of their report

English and French = essential languages for its citizens

There is one more twist to Pattern 7. All of the examples above show the OC as an NP. However, the OC can also be an adjective. The OC’s job of referring back to the DO remains the same, but now it is an adjective modifying the DO:

The governor’s decision (made) the citizens angry.

Subject TV DO OC

Language policy discussions (can make) you frustrated.

Subject TV DO OC

Language policies (can leave) some people disenfranchised.

Subject TV DO OC

In the examples above, you can see that the adjectives angry, frustrated, and dis-enfranchised function as object complements describing the direct objects. Exam-ine the four sentences below and see whether you can identify the one Pattern 7 sentence.

Men and women (may use) language differently.

Interesting research (examines) speech for gender differences.

Some research (investigates) interruptions in conversations.

The term “genderlect” (assumes) language differences by gender.

Victoria (calls) her dialect slang.

Only the last sentence provides us with an example of Pattern 7. The others are Pattern 5: Subject-TV-DO. Let’s examine each more closely. In the first sentence, language is the DO; differently is an adverb modifying the verb may use. The sec-ond sentence has a DO followed by a prepositional phrase. The PP has an NP—the object of preposition, gender differences; however, this NP cannot be used as an OC because it is already occupied in its job as the OP. The third and fourth sen-tences are similar in that the DOs, interruptions and language differences, are

fol-Sentence Patterns 89 lowed by PPs, in conversations and by gender. The last sentence provides a good example of Pattern 7, with slang as the OC describing her dialect:

Victoria (calls) her dialect slang.

Subject TV DO OC

DID YOU KNOW?

The American Dialect Society chooses a number of words each year that reflect new and popular usages—for example, most likely to succeed, least likely to succeed, and most useful, creative, unnecessary, outrageous, and euphemis-tic. Consider “grelfie,” “teebowing,” and “twerknado.” “Hashtag” was the Word of the Year in 2012; the Word of the Year in 2013 was “because.” See why

“because” is the winner as well as the latest winners (and losers) at www.

americandialect.org/woty or search for “American Dialect Society Words of the Year.”