...ese hueso grande. Why is "bone" not a direct object?
Este perro pequeño tiene ese hueso grande. Es grande.
This little dog has that bone. It is big.
I thought "bone" was a direct object in the first sentence. I'm also using demonstrative adjectives. Does the use of the demonstrative adjective have anything to do with bone not being a direct object? Why is bone not a direct object in the first sentence? Gracias
3 Answers
The word "bone" is the direct object of the first sentence, but the second sentence ("Es grande") is a completely difference sentence, with a different verb, which happens to use the same word "bone".
Este perro pequeño tiene ese hueso grande. = Ese perro pequeño lo tiene.
El hueso es grande. = Es grande.
In terms of parts of speech, your English and Spanish examples are nearly identical.
In the first sentence you have a subject, a verb and a direct object.
In the sentences above, the words "este" and "ese" ("this" and "that") are demonstrative adjectives which modify the noun by acting as determiners; meanwhile, the words "grande" and "pequeño" ("big" and "little") are descriptive adjectives which act to assign an attribute to the noun being modified.
Taken together, the noun and its modifiers make up what is referred to as a noun phrase, and each noun phrase plays its respective role (as a subject or direct object, in this case) within the sentence.
The idea of a direct object is intimately associated with the idea of transitivity (a property of verbs). Transitive verbs, by nature, are those which require (i.e. are incomplete without) an object. Using a transitive verb without an object results in ungrammatical sentences which are strikingly obvious in that they appear to be incomplete thoughts:
?Este perro pequeño tiene/This little dog has (has what?)
?Ese niño recibió/That boy received (received what?)
?Golpéo/He hit (hit what?)
?No quiero hacer/I don't want to do/make (do/make what?)
Es grande.
It is big.
Your second sentence is copular in nature in that the predicate is used (by way of the adjective "grande/big") to describe an attribute of the subject (it/that big bone). In this case, the subject takes the form of a subject pronoun (in English) which finds its antecedent in the previous sentence (that is, the pronoun has already been defined by the previous utterance with the noun phrase "that big bone/ese hueso grande"). Notice that copular sentences are also incomplete unless they are followed by complement such as a predicative nominative (restates or stands for the subject) or a predicative adjective (which is attributive in nature):
?Es/He is (is what?)
?Eres/You are (you are what?)
Predicative nominative:
?Es médico/He is a doctor
?¡Eres aguafiestas!/You are a killjoy!
Predicative adjective:
?Es grande/He is large
?Eres muy inteligente/You are very smart
As Lazarus has already pointed out, these two sets of sentences are distinct sentences, and as such, the concept of transitivity (i.e. direct objects) should be dealt with on a verb by verb–and in this case, sentence-by-sentence–basis.
Hopefully, this post did not get too bogged down by grammatical terminology (and I provided a few links as I was not sure how well you might have been acquainted with such terms), and at least makes the idea a little clearer for you.
Lazrus: Thank you for confirming the direct object! At first glance I missed your use of "lo", now I see it in your sentence "Ese perro pequeño lo tiene." I think in English this translates to "That small dog has it". I was looking for a way to use the Direct Object pronoun and you showed an example. Sorry I missed the complete sentence earlier and thanks for your answer!
