Discussion on question by aesking: Is 'to resign' an object or subject complement in 'The teacher wishes to resign'?

No, the first analysis is wrong. When you tell someone something, the direct object is the something not the someone. The someone is the indirect object.

No, telling Stephanie X is the same as telling X to Stephanie. That is why @tchrist wrote that Stephanie is the indirect object.

To add to the above: John told Stephanie some great advice. ->The collocation of "to tell advice" is incorrect. You can give/offer/proffer, etc., advice but you cannot tell advice. Correcting for this: John(S) gave(V) Stephanie(IO) some great advice(DO). (Compare John gave Stephanie a ring. Or John gave a ring to Stephanie.) To Stephanie can be considered either as the indirect object of "give" or an adverbial phrase.

@aesking No, you have it exactly backwards. Syntax is what drives the syntactic classification, and here the direct object is the thing not the person. When you tell your husband a story, the story is the thing you tell. Your husband is whom you've told that story to. Syntax is why it's an indirect object.

Please go back and study the difference between a direct object and an indirect object in the context of ditransitive verbs such as give and tell, as you seem to have gotten these completely confused. Also, please take this to chat where it belongs.