Grammar – Object of ‘I Don’t Like People Telling Me What to Do’

grammarobjectsverbs

In the sentences

I don't like people telling me what to do.
I'm fed up with you telling me what to do.

What are the objects of like and with? Is it "people" or "people telling me what to do" for the verb like?

Why can't I use a sentence just after like or with?. That is to say:

I don't like people tell me what to do.
I'm fed up with you tell me what to do.

Best Answer

The object of don't like in

  • I don't like people telling me what to do

is the noun phrase people telling me what to do. Of course it's not a single noun; it has internal structure. However, it's ambiguous. It could either mean

  • [those] people [who are] telling me what to do,
    a complex noun phrase with a relative clause reduced by Whiz-Deletion, logically
  • (∀x: PEOPLE(x)) TELL (x, I, DO (I, What))

or it could mean

  • people telling me what to do, a gerund complement clause, logically
  • TELL (People, I, DO (I, What))

I will assume the second meaning. In that case, the logical structure is

  • NOT (LIKE (I, TELL (People, I, DO (I, What))))

Since like takes a gerund complement, TELL comes out as telling in the second clause.

The last clause is a very reduced conjunctive embedded question infinitive clause, with B-Equi indicating that the subject of DO is in fact identical to the indirect object of TELL (I). Some more syntactic gymnastics is required to move what, and add complementizers and auxiliaries all around.

As to why you can't say

  • *I don't like you tell me what to do,

that's because English needs more little words and has more restrictions on verbs than Chinese. Like, for instance, needs a to complementizer in front of an infinitive object,
so what you have to say is

  • I don't like you to tell me what to do.

or, with the full FOR-TO complementizer,

  • I don't like for you to tell me what to do.
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