In this thesis I investigate the relationship between the semantics of a verb and its selectional restrictions, which determine how many and what kind of arguments it must occur with in a clause. For most verbs, these restrictions are predictable from the semantics of the verb, but there are pairs of verbs with very similar semantics that differ in their argument restrictions. For example, both ask and wonder can take questions as their complements (John asked/wondered what time it was), but of the two, only ask can take a noun phrase complement with a question-like interpretation (John asked/*wondered the time). Similarly, while both eat and devour are verbs of consumption, the object can be omitted with eat but not devour (John ate/*devoured yesterday). Due to these and similar examples, many linguists have claimed that selectional restrictions are to some extent arbitrary and unpredictable from the semantics, and therefore must be learned as part of our knowledge of the relevant verbs. In this thesis I argue that these differences are not arbitrary; they recur across languages, and they can be predicted on the basis of lexical semantics, meaning they do not need to be learned on a word-by-word basis. In order for selectional features to be eliminated from the grammar, and replaced with semantic generalizations, two things must be shown. First, it must be demonstrated that the elements being selected for can be defined in terms of their semantics, rather than their syntactic properties. If not, the selectional properties could not be considered to be fully predictable based on the semantics of the selecting and selected items. Second, it must be shown that the selectional restrictions of a predicate are predictable from components of the selecting predicate’s meaning. In other words, the semantics of both the selected and the selecting elements must be accounted for. I focus mainly on the semantics of selected elements in Chapter 2, and on selecting elements in Chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 2 provides a brief review of the literature on selectional features, and argues that the elements being selected need not be defined in terms of their syntactic category and features. Instead, what are selected for are the semantic properties of the selected items. While the relationship between syntactic and semantic categories and properties is often systematic, it is not always, which can make it difficult in certain cases to determine the semantic basis for predicting what elements will be selected. Specifically, I argue that what appears to be selection for clausal categories (CPs or TPs) is in fact selection for propositional entities (including questions, assertions, facts, and so on); apparent selection for bare verb phrases (vPs) is selection for eventualities (events or states); and apparent selection for nominals (DPs) is selection for objects or things. Only properties of the nearest semantic entity (i.e., excluding elements embedded therein) can be selected for. In this way, I account for the selectional asymmetries between clausal and nominal complements noted by Bruening (2009) and Bruening et al. (2018): predicates selecting clausal complements can only select for (semantic) properties of the upper portion of the clause (in the CP domain), not for the lower portion (the vP domain), while predicates taking nominal complements can select for any properties of the nominal rather than being restricted to the upper portion. Since all syntactic properties of items are encoded as features, on a syntactic account it is expected that all features should be involved in selectional restrictions, contrary to fact; the semantic approach taken here allows for a principled explanation of what can and cannot be selected for. In Chapters 3 and 4 I turn to the lexical semantics of selecting elements, showing that these too are involved in determining selectional restrictions. I start in Chapter 3 by looking at c-selection (i.e., syntactic selection), specifically the case of eat versus devour. As mentioned above, their selectional properties of these two verbs differ in that the complement of eat is optional, while that of devour is obligatory, despite the two verbs having similar meanings. I show that this is due to the aspectual properties of these verbs: devour denotes an event where the complement necessarily undergoes a complete scalar change (i.e., it must be fully devoured by the end of the event), which means that the complement must be syntactically realized (Rappaport Hovav and Levin 2001; Rappaport Hovav 2008). Eat, on the other hand, does not entail a complete change of state in its complement, and so the complement is optional. I show that the correlation between scalar change entailments and obligatory argument realization holds for a wider group of verbs as well. Thus, the c-selectional properties of eat, devour, and similar verbs need not be stipulated in their lexical entries. In Chapter 4 I turn to the selection of complements headed by a particular lexical item, as with rely, which requires a PP complement headed by on, a phenomenon commonly referred to as l-selection. I show that the sets of verbs and prepositions involved in l-selection, and the observed verb-preposition combinations, are not fully random but can instead be (partially) predicted based on the thematic properties of the items in question. Furthermore, I show that there are different kinds of l-selecting predicates, and one kind is systematically present in satellite-framed languages (like English) and absent in verb-framed languages (like French), based on the Framing Typology of Talmy (1985, 1991, 2000). I account for this difference by analyzing l-selection as an instance of complex predicate formation, and showing that a certain kind of complex predicate (exemplified by rely on) is possible in satellite-framed languages but not in verb-framed languages. Thus, I show that the features that get selected for are semantic features, and that the problematic cases of eat versus devour and l-selection have semantic correlates, and need not be stipulated in the lexicon. While this leaves many instances of selectional features unaccounted for, it provides proposals for some components of lexical semantics that are relevant to selection, and demonstrates that a research program directed toward eliminating the remaining cases is plausibly viable.

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This paper investigates the mechanism for nominative/accusative Case alternations in the siph-ta ‘want-to’ construction in Korean. I argue that the Case alternations in the Korean siph-ta construction are motivated by the peculiar property of siph- that it has dual argument structures and restructuring properties. Specifically, the structural Case on the embedded object is determined by 1) the type of the matrix vP that siph- takes—vP(DO) or vP(BE) - and 2) the presence/absence of the functional category responsible for accusative Case checking, which is selected by the matrix predicate siph-. In so doing, it is demonstrated that the dual argument structure analysis can be extended to account for the same type of Case alternations exhibited by Korean psych-verbs as well as the incompatibility between a nominative object and an embedded psych-verb in the siph-ta construction.

This dissertation provides an account of an often-noted change in the history of French: the shift in the expression of the internal argument of a small class of dynamic two-place verbs best represented by aider ‘to help’ from “dative”, i.e., as an indirect object with the preposition à, to “accusative”, i.e., as a direct object with no preposition. The change does not appear to be correlated with a change in the meaning of the verbs. Traditional commentators have viewed it as random, affecting only a few lexical items, rather than systematic. One of the central results of this thesis is that the valency change affects a class of some twenty verbs at approximately the same period and it follows the same time course. Moreover, three properties distinguish this class of verbs from all others taking indirect objects in French: following current ideas about the syntactic manifestation of verbs and their arguments, they have a non relational argument structure, they do not possess lexical directionality, and they select for first or third order entities. These facts suggest that a structural change underlies the change in the realization of the internal argument. Adopting Lightfoot’s (1999, 2006) “cue-based” approach to language change, it is proposed that the valency change is a result of the loss of a functional item encoding directionality. Directionality is a derived property in Medieval French, available in particular to prepositions. It is demonstrated that when à was able to encode direction, it was also able to license first and third order complements in a broader range of contexts, namely, with aider-type verbs. The loss of this functional item is also correlated with several other structural changes that occurred in the 16th and 17th century.

This dissertation provides an account of an often-noted change in the history of French: the shift in the expression of the internal argument of a small class of dynamic two-place verbs best represented by aider ‘to help’ from “dative”, i.e., as an indirect object with the preposition à, to “accusative”, i.e., as a direct object with no preposition. The change does not appear to be correlated with a change in the meaning of the verbs. Traditional commentators have viewed it as random, affecting only a few lexical items, rather than systematic. One of the central results of this thesis is that the valency change affects a class of some twenty verbs at approximately the same period and it follows the same time course. Moreover, three properties distinguish this class of verbs from all others taking indirect objects in French: following current ideas about the syntactic manifestation of verbs and their arguments, they have a non relational argument structure, they do not possess lexical directionality, and they select for first or third order entities. These facts suggest that a structural change underlies the change in the realization of the internal argument. Adopting Lightfoot’s (1999, 2006) “cue-based” approach to language change, it is proposed that the valency change is a result of the loss of a functional item encoding directionality. Directionality is a derived property in Medieval French, available in particular to prepositions. It is demonstrated that when à was able to encode direction, it was also able to license first and third order complements in a broader range of contexts, namely, with aider-type verbs. The loss of this functional item is also correlated with several other structural changes that occurred in the 16th and 17th century.

In this thesis I will explore the impersonal constructions in Modern Welsh. In doing so, I will follow the approach of the previous literature in comparing this construction with the analytic Welsh passive. The general linguistic literature on passivization assumes that both constructions involve passivization and despite some studies of Welsh concluding that the impersonal construction is not a passive, this thesis cannot support or deny this claim. I show that it is the definition of passive that obstructs a conclusive analysis for the Welsh impersonal morphology's syntactic and semantic effects, ultimately. Using the data described in detail throughout the thesis, I conclude with an assessment of the scope of our current theories of passive - be they typological or theoretical - that reveals problematic areas. Typological, prototypical and canonical approaches to the passive of course fail to include enough nuance to identify the relevant structural components of the Welsh impersonal, whilst theoretical approaches cannot account for the restrictions found on intransitive impersonals. LFG's mapping theory has the potential to accommodate the Welsh data according to current proposals and as such is examined in more depth. I have given an emphasis to using naturally occurring data whenever possible and this has led to a data-rich, descriptive work, in an attempt to expand the breadth of examples of Welsh found in discussions of linguistic theory. Additionally, this approach provide the basis for future work on Welsh verb classes by describing the behaviour of verbs in several constructions relevant to the work at hand. Along with a general synthesis of the previous literature on impersonals and analytic passives in chapter 2, I include an elaborated analysis of Welsh analytic passives and some problematic new impersonal data. The novel data on verb classes begins in chapter 3 with a study of verbs of psychological state. The lack of restriction on the impersonal contrasts with the analytic GET-passive's failure in a subset of these transitive verbs previously unobserved. In chapter 4, I investigate the availability of unaccusativity diagnostics in Welsh, in an attempt to prove that unaccusative verbs do indeed impersonalize, as suggested by previous literature. Chapter 5 then uses the diagnostic, amongst others to track down further restrictions on the impersonal and I show that whilst unaccusativity cannot be excluded as a potential restriction to impersonal morphology, the semantic restrictions are as plausible an account. This chapter uses different structural and semantic verbs and predicates and finds that animacy in intransitives is the only restriction needed to describe impersonals. In the following chapter (6) I examine this restriction in more detail and summarize the data on the impersonal in order to then probe the current linguistic theories in chapter 7.

L’objectif général de la présente thèse est d’évaluer dans quelle mesure la grammaire des verbes, aussi appelée complémentation verbale, peut être basée sur l’usage de la langue. La linguistique de l’usage (usage-based approach) constitue un récent changement de paradigme dans les sciences du langage, qui défend l’idée que la grammaire est un inventaire dynamique d’unités symboliques qui émergent et sont constamment redéfinies par l’usage de la langue. En adoptant une approche constructionnelle de la complémentation verbale et sur la base de données de l’anglais, nous traitons la question de la relation entre la grammaire des verbes et leur usage à trois niveaux d’organisation.Au niveau des verbes, nous comparons des résultats expérimentaux à des données de corpus, et trouvons que les plus fréquentes valences d’un verbe sont traitées plus facilement, ce qui montre que la valence est basée sur l’usage. Au niveau des constructions, nous montrons que, dans le cas de la construction conative, il est possible de formuler le sens d’une construction sur la base du sens des verbes en se plaçant au niveau de classes sémantiques, mais moins facilement au niveau le plus abstrait. Nous considérons ceci comme une preuve supplémentaire de l’importance des schémas de bas niveau sur les généralisations abstraites. Au niveau des alternances, nous suggérons que la productivité verbale peut être basée sur des relations d’alternances. Nous montrons que l’alternance dative présente une asymétrie en productivité, et que cette asymétrie peut être expliquée par des différences correspondantes en termes du nombre de verbes utilisés dans chaque construction. / The general goal of this thesis is to investigate to what extent the grammar of verbs, also called argument realization, can be based on linguistic usage. The usage-based approach is a recent paradigm shift in linguistics which takes the view that grammar is a dynamic inventory of symbolic conventions that emerges through, and is likewise shaped by, actual language use. Adopting a constructional approach to argument structure and on the basis of English data, we address the question of the usage basis of argument realization at three levels of organization.At the level of verbs, we compare experimental results to usage data, and find that more frequent valency patterns of a verb are processed more easily. These findings provide evidence for the usage basis of valency. At the level of constructions, we show that, in the case of the conative construction, it is possible to formulate constructional generalizations on the basis of verbal meaning at the level of semantically defined verb classes, but not so easily at the most abstract level. We take this as further evidence of the importance of lower-level schemas over broad generalizations. At the level of alternations, we present usage-based evidence that productivity can be based on alternation relations. We report that the dative alternation displays a productivity asymmetry, and we show that these differences can be explained by corresponding asymmetries in type frequencies.

Em uma visão etimológica, o Verbo Denominal (VD) é aquele verbo que surgiu historicamente a partir de uma base nominal. Os dicionários consideram que um verbo é denominal quando sua forma nominal cognata tem uma datação anterior nos registros da língua. Há, dessa forma, duas maneiras de tratar a relação entre nome e verbo: em uma perspectiva sincrônica ou diacrônica. Como há certa mistura no tratamento do fenômeno, faz-se necessária uma distinção entre critérios etimológicos e sincrônicos para a determinação do que é um verbo denominal. No presente trabalho, buscamos encontrar critérios formais e sincrônicos para saber quais verbos diacronicamente considerados como denominais podem também ser assim considerados em uma análise sincrônica de formação das palavras e em quais casos há razões comprovadas para propor o abandono do rótulo denominal. Partimos de uma amostra de 4.548 verbos etimologicamente denominais do português, retirados do Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa, e a restringimos por critérios de frequência a 95 verbos, que constituíram de fato o objeto de análise do estudo. Submetemos todos os verbos a testes estruturais de formação de sentenças sugeridos por Kyparsky (1987), Hale & Keyser (2002) e Arad (2003), a saber: Alternância Causativo-incoativo (Teste1); Alternância Média (Teste 2); Presença de Expressão Perifrástica (Teste 3); Presença de Objeto Cognato (Teste 4); Presença de Adjunto Cognato (Teste 5); Presença de Adjuntos Hipônimos e Hiperônimos (Teste 6). As sentenças foram submetidas a julgamento de 40 falantes nativos de português brasileiro. Os resultados apontaram para uma heterogeneidade no comportamento da classe geral dos VDs. Em suma, há um grupo para os quais os testes indicam uma etapa nominal (gramaticalidade para testes 3,(4),5 e 6) e um outro grupo para os quais os testes não indicam a presença de uma etapa nominal na formação (agramaticalidade para testes 3,5 e 6). Há verbos que participam e não participam de alternâncias (gramaticalidade e agramaticalidade para testes 1 e 2) e, por fim, há um grupo de verbos em que uma acepção remete a uma etapa nominal e outra acepção remete a ausência de etapa nominal. Após observar alternativas de análise em teorias lexicalistas de regras de formação de palavras (Basílio, 1993) e sintaxe-lexical (Hale & Keyser, 2002), conseguimos diferenciar estruturas com uma etapa nominal (denominais) de estruturas derivadas diretamente da raiz com base nos pressupostos da teoria da Morfologia Distribuída (Halle & Marantz, 1993; Harley & Noyer, 1999), mais especificamente Arad (2003), Marantz (2008) e Harley (2005). Conseguimos representar estruturalmente os diferentes tipos de (supostos) VDs no que se refere ao seu comportamento sintático e sua relação semântica com os (supostos) nomes formadores. Em primeiro lugar, tratamos dois grandes grupos: o primeiro contém os verbos que são formados a partir da categorização de uma raiz por um nome (n) e, em seguida, por um verbo (v) (estruturas denominais sincrônicas) e o segundo por verbos que são formados pela categorização direta de uma raiz () por um verbo (v) (estruturas não-denominais). No primeiro grupo, o dos denominais, observamos diferenças no comportamento sintático e sugerimos para eles diferentes tipos de estruturas: de alternância, de não-alternância e location/locatum. Em seguida, discutimos dois tipos de fenômenos que culminam na formação tanto de verbos denominais quanto de verbos derivados diretamente da raiz para aqueles que parecem, em princípio, tratar-se de um só verbo (verbos com estruturas denominais e estruturas de maneira e Mesmo verbo com comportamentos opostos). Por fim, a maior contribuição teórica deste trabalho está em que avançamos no esclarecimento da diferença entre uma formação sincrônica e diacrônica de palavras, mostrando que nem sempre a explicação histórica é a única possível. / From an etymologycal point of view, the Denominal Verb is the one that derives historically from a nominal base. Dictionaries consider a verb as denominal when its cognate nominal form is older than the verbal one in language records. Thus, there are two ways of treating what is called denominal verb, regarding the relation between the noun and the verb: from a synchronic or from a dyachronic perspective. Since the description of this class is rather misleading, it is necessary to make a distinction between etymological and synchronic criteria in the definition of what a denominal verb is. For these reasons, the aim of this work is i) to find out synchronic and formal criteria to know which denominal verbs, from a diachronic point of view, can also be considered as such under a synchronic analysis of word formation and ii) in which cases can real reasons be found for the abandonment of the label denominal. We started from a sample of 4.548 etymologically denominal verbs in Portuguese, collected from Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa, and, due to a frequency criteria, we reduced it to 95 verbs that constitute, in fact, the object of this study. We submmited all the verbs to structural tests of sentence formation suggested by Kyparsky (1987), Hale & Keyser (2002) and Arad (2003), namely: Inchoative- Causative Alternation (Test 1); Middle Alternation (Test 2); Presence of Periphrastic Expression (Test 3); Presence of Cognate Object (Test 4); Presence of Cognate Adjunct (Test 5); Presence of Hiponimous and Hiperonimous Adjunction (Test 6).The sentences were submitted to the judgement of 40 native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. The results pointed to heterogeneity in the behaviour of the general class of denominal verbs. To sum up, there is a group of verbs to which the tests indicated a nominal stage in the derivation of the verb (grammaticality for tests 3 (4), 5 and 6) and another group of verbs to which the tests did not indicate the presence of that nominal stage (agrammaticality for tests 3, 5 and 6). There are verbs that do and do not participate in alternations (gramaticality and agramaticality for tests 1 and 2) and, finally, there is a group of verbs for which one meaning indicates a nominal stage and the other meaning indicates the absence of such a nominal stage. After observing some analysis under lexicalist theories based on word formation rules (Basílio, 1993) or under lexico-syntactic approaches such as Hale & Keyser (2002), we could offer an analysis under which it is possible to distinguish the so-called denominal verbs in two classes: i) those represented by structures that include a nominal stage in the derivation (denominals), ii) those represented by structures in which the verb is derived directly from roots. This analysis is based on the Distributed Morphology model (Halle & Marantz, 1993; Harley & Noyer, 1999), more specifically, on Arad (2003), Marantz (2008) and Harley (2005). Our first step was to separate the two big groups: the first containing verbs that are derived from the categorization of a root () by a noun (n) and, then, by a verb (v) (synchronic denominal structures), and the second group containing verbs that are derived from the direct categorization of a root () by a verb (v) (non-denominal structures). In the first group, the denominal one, we observed that the sentences containing such verbs presented different syntactic behaviors and we suggested different kinds of structures: alternating, non-alternating and location/locatum. In sequence, we discussed some verbs that led us to suggest that they can be formed either as denominal verbs or as root-derived ones. We could then represent the structure of different types of so-called denominal verbs regarding their syntactic behavior and the relation they establish with the noun formed by the same root. Finally, the major theoretic contribution of this work is that we improved in clarifying the difference between a synchronic and a dyachronic word formation process, showing that the historical explanation is not always the single possibility.

Este trabalho revisita as sentenças bitransitivas do Português do Brasil (PB) a partir de dois aspectos que consideramos ser fundamentais para descrever e explicar a bitransitividade nessa língua: (a) a possibilidade de alternância entre as preposições a e para na introdução do elemento indireto e (b) a possibilidade de alternância na ordem dos complementos do predicado verbal. Nesse mesmo sentido, surgem como questão os dados do dialeto falado no português da Zona da Mata Mineira (PBM), já atestado e investigado em Scher (1996), em que verificamos a possibilidade de omissão da preposição, mas uma manutenção da possibilidade de alternância da ordem dos complementos verbais. Para dar conta do primeiro aspecto em questão, apoiamo-nos na proposta de núcleos funcionais Aplicativos introdutores de argumento nos moldes de Pylkkänen (2002). A escolha teórica se justifica pelo fato de a presença da preposição a gerar sentenças não-ambíguas em que uma relação semântica de transferência de posse, representada por um Aplicativo Baixo, nos termos de Pylkkänen (2002), é estabelecida entre os dois complementos verbais. A escolha da preposição para, por outro lado, gera sentenças ambíguas entre essa mesma relação de transferência de posse e o estabelecimento de uma espécie de beneficiário do evento, esse último representado por um Aplicativo Alto, também nos termos de Pylkkänen (2002). A partir daí, propomos que os argumentos de um verbo bitransitivo são inseridos via uma projeção funcional que licencia ambos os elementos e estabelece a relação semântica adequada entre eles. Para o PB, a nossa proposta é a de que a preposição seja a realização fonológica do núcleo da projeção Aplicativa. Mais especificamente para a variante do PBM, a nossa análise é a de que o mesmo núcleo Aplicativo esteja presente, sem a realização fonológica da preposição, mas com a mesma constituição de traços formais das sentenças do PB. A hipótese que daí se segue é que uma operação morfológica, sem consequências sintáticas, seja responsável pela ausência dessa preposição. Um modelo teórico separacionista, em que a sintaxe trabalha com traços formais e não fonológicos e em que a inserção de fonologia acontece depois de operações sintáticas e morfológicas, tal como a Morfologia Distribuída (Halle & Marantz, 1993), surge, então, como perspectiva de análise. Para dar conta da possibilidade de alternância na ordem dos complementos em sentenças bitransitivas do PB e do PBM, propomos, então, que aspectos informacionais sejam responsáveis pelo licenciamento dessas estruturas. Sugerimos, com Scher (1996), que a ordem VPPNP, no PB e, possivelmente, VNPNP, no PBM, em entonação normal, revela o caráter de Tópico do elemento colocado entre o verbo e o objeto direto e, assim, finalizamos nossa proposta apoiadas em Armelin (2009), em especial, no quadro teórico do modelo cartográfico, nos moldes de Rizzi (1997) e Belletti (2002). Esses autores, explodindo respectivamente CP e a periferia de VP, encontram aí crucialmente posições informacionais de Foco e Tópico. A nossa proposta, nesse sentido, é a de que o aspecto informacional, a saber, a movimentação de um elemento para a posição de especificador da projeção de Tópico, será responsável pelo licenciamento da ordem VPPNP nos dados do PB. / This work revisits ditransitive sentences in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) guided by two fundamental aspects on the description and explanation of the ditransitivity in this language: (a) the possibility of the alternation between the prepositions a (to) and para (for) in the introduction of the indirect element and (b) the possibility of alternation in the order of the verbal predicate complements. In this sense, the data of a Brazilian dialect spoken at the Zona da Mata Mineira (PBM), attested and investigated in Scher (1996), emerge as a question. In this dialect it is possible to omit the preposition even if the possibility of verbal complements order alternation is maintained. The investigation of the first aspect is based in the theory of functional Applicative heads proposed by Pylkkänen (2002). This theoretical choice is justified by the fact that the a (to) preposition creates non ambiguous sentences in which a semantic relation of possession transference, represented by a Low Applicative (Pylkkänen, 2002), is established between the two complements of a ditransitive predicate. The presence of the para (for) preposition, creates ambiguous sentences between the possession transference relation and the establishment of an event beneficiary, this last one represented, in Pylkkänen (2002), by a High Applicative. This work proposes that the arguments of a ditransitive predicate is inserted by a functional projection that licenses both elements and performs the right semantic relation between then. For the PB, its proposed that the preposition is the head of such functional projection. Specifically for the PBM data, this work proposes that the very same functional projection is present, without the phonological realization of the preposition, but with the same morphosyntactic traces constitution. A morphological operation, without syntactic consequences, is responsible for the absence of this preposition The investigation of the possible alternation in the order of the complements in the PB and PBM ditransitive sentences is based on informational aspects. It is suggested, with Scher (1996), that de VPPNP order revels the Topic function of the element located between the verb and the direct object. The structre proposed to this word order is based in the cartographic model, specifically in Rizzi (1997) and Belletti (2002). These authors, exploding CP and the periphery of VP respectively, propose the existence of informational positions, like Focus and Topic. Our hypothesis, then, is that the movement of an element to the Topic specifier position is responsible for the grammaticality of the order VPPNP in BP data.

Este trabalho revisita as sentenças bitransitivas do Português do Brasil (PB) a partir de dois aspectos que consideramos ser fundamentais para descrever e explicar a bitransitividade nessa língua: (a) a possibilidade de alternância entre as preposições a e para na introdução do elemento indireto e (b) a possibilidade de alternância na ordem dos complementos do predicado verbal. Nesse mesmo sentido, surgem como questão os dados do dialeto falado no português da Zona da Mata Mineira (PBM), já atestado e investigado em Scher (1996), em que verificamos a possibilidade de omissão da preposição, mas uma manutenção da possibilidade de alternância da ordem dos complementos verbais. Para dar conta do primeiro aspecto em questão, apoiamo-nos na proposta de núcleos funcionais Aplicativos introdutores de argumento nos moldes de Pylkkänen (2002). A escolha teórica se justifica pelo fato de a presença da preposição a gerar sentenças não-ambíguas em que uma relação semântica de transferência de posse, representada por um Aplicativo Baixo, nos termos de Pylkkänen (2002), é estabelecida entre os dois complementos verbais. A escolha da preposição para, por outro lado, gera sentenças ambíguas entre essa mesma relação de transferência de posse e o estabelecimento de uma espécie de beneficiário do evento, esse último representado por um Aplicativo Alto, também nos termos de Pylkkänen (2002). A partir daí, propomos que os argumentos de um verbo bitransitivo são inseridos via uma projeção funcional que licencia ambos os elementos e estabelece a relação semântica adequada entre eles. Para o PB, a nossa proposta é a de que a preposição seja a realização fonológica do núcleo da projeção Aplicativa. Mais especificamente para a variante do PBM, a nossa análise é a de que o mesmo núcleo Aplicativo esteja presente, sem a realização fonológica da preposição, mas com a mesma constituição de traços formais das sentenças do PB. A hipótese que daí se segue é que uma operação morfológica, sem consequências sintáticas, seja responsável pela ausência dessa preposição. Um modelo teórico separacionista, em que a sintaxe trabalha com traços formais e não fonológicos e em que a inserção de fonologia acontece depois de operações sintáticas e morfológicas, tal como a Morfologia Distribuída (Halle & Marantz, 1993), surge, então, como perspectiva de análise. Para dar conta da possibilidade de alternância na ordem dos complementos em sentenças bitransitivas do PB e do PBM, propomos, então, que aspectos informacionais sejam responsáveis pelo licenciamento dessas estruturas. Sugerimos, com Scher (1996), que a ordem VPPNP, no PB e, possivelmente, VNPNP, no PBM, em entonação normal, revela o caráter de Tópico do elemento colocado entre o verbo e o objeto direto e, assim, finalizamos nossa proposta apoiadas em Armelin (2009), em especial, no quadro teórico do modelo cartográfico, nos moldes de Rizzi (1997) e Belletti (2002). Esses autores, explodindo respectivamente CP e a periferia de VP, encontram aí crucialmente posições informacionais de Foco e Tópico. A nossa proposta, nesse sentido, é a de que o aspecto informacional, a saber, a movimentação de um elemento para a posição de especificador da projeção de Tópico, será responsável pelo licenciamento da ordem VPPNP nos dados do PB. / This work revisits ditransitive sentences in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) guided by two fundamental aspects on the description and explanation of the ditransitivity in this language: (a) the possibility of the alternation between the prepositions a (to) and para (for) in the introduction of the indirect element and (b) the possibility of alternation in the order of the verbal predicate complements. In this sense, the data of a Brazilian dialect spoken at the Zona da Mata Mineira (PBM), attested and investigated in Scher (1996), emerge as a question. In this dialect it is possible to omit the preposition even if the possibility of verbal complements order alternation is maintained. The investigation of the first aspect is based in the theory of functional Applicative heads proposed by Pylkkänen (2002). This theoretical choice is justified by the fact that the a (to) preposition creates non ambiguous sentences in which a semantic relation of possession transference, represented by a Low Applicative (Pylkkänen, 2002), is established between the two complements of a ditransitive predicate. The presence of the para (for) preposition, creates ambiguous sentences between the possession transference relation and the establishment of an event beneficiary, this last one represented, in Pylkkänen (2002), by a High Applicative. This work proposes that the arguments of a ditransitive predicate is inserted by a functional projection that licenses both elements and performs the right semantic relation between then. For the PB, its proposed that the preposition is the head of such functional projection. Specifically for the PBM data, this work proposes that the very same functional projection is present, without the phonological realization of the preposition, but with the same morphosyntactic traces constitution. A morphological operation, without syntactic consequences, is responsible for the absence of this preposition The investigation of the possible alternation in the order of the complements in the PB and PBM ditransitive sentences is based on informational aspects. It is suggested, with Scher (1996), that de VPPNP order revels the Topic function of the element located between the verb and the direct object. The structre proposed to this word order is based in the cartographic model, specifically in Rizzi (1997) and Belletti (2002). These authors, exploding CP and the periphery of VP respectively, propose the existence of informational positions, like Focus and Topic. Our hypothesis, then, is that the movement of an element to the Topic specifier position is responsible for the grammaticality of the order VPPNP in BP data.