Both ditransitive verbs and causative transitive verbs in Japanese are linked with the two verbal arguments: the dative phrase and the accusative phrase. Despite this similarity, the syntax of these verbs is in sharp contrast: the ditransitive verb construction involves the mono-clausal structure, whereas the transitive causative construction contains the bi-clausal structure (Kuroda 1965b, Saito 1982; 1985, Hoji 1985, Miyagawa 1989, among others). One crucial instance for such distinction is the behavior of the dative phrase of the two types of construction with respect to the ‘subjecthood’. The subject-oriented anaphor in Japanese (e.g., zibun ‘self’) can take the dative phrase of the transitive causative verb as its antecedent, whereas it cannot the dative phrase with the ditransitive verb as its antecedent (Kuroda 1965b). Notwithstanding the difference, this thesis attempts to proposes a unified account for these two types of dative-accusative constructions in terms of the Phase Theory within the framework of Generative Grammar (Chomsky 2000; 2001). Investigating four subcategories of dative-accusative verbs (i.e., spray/load verbs, give verbs, causative transitive verbs and causative motion verbs), I claim that there are two types of Dative Case Assignment in Japanese: the In-situ Assignment and the Assignment after Movement. The former type of assignment is manifested in VP of give verbs and in that of transitive causative verbs; on the other hand, the latter type of assignment is identified in VP of spray/load verbs and in that of causative motion verbs. In the Phase theory, the probe-goal relation between the functional head and its ccommanding goal(s) (i.e., (Multiple) Agree) governs Case-licensing mechanism. In standard assumptions, the Accusative Case domain is the c-command domain of the light verb v (Chomsky 2004). Following these assumptions, I claim that the two types of Dative Case Assignment can be ultimately attributed to the two distinctive Case features on the functional head v of the four types of dative-accusative constructions: vacc[+multiple] and vdat. If vacc[+multiple] is selected by Merge, the Dative Assignment after Movement is implemented, whereas if vdat is selected, the In-situ Dative Assignment is induced. Hence, the difference in Dative Case Assignment is predicted at which Select picks up vocabularies from the Lexicon in order to set up a reference set for a derivation of the dative-accusative construction. The in-situ dative assignment for the ditransitive construction has been proposed in the literature (e.g., Miyagawa 1996); however, no proposal of a movement-based dative assignment for the ditransitive construction has been made. This is one of the important outcomes of my thesis. However, the most important consequence of my two types of Dative Assignment is the link between two hitherto unrelated phenomena: Dative Case Assignment and the condition on argument alternation. Argument alternation has attracted much attention in the literature of lexical semantics, being independently analyzed from most of the syntactic properties of these ditransitive verbs that I examine in the thesis (Kageyama 1980; 1996, Levin 1993, Kishimoto 2001c, Iwata 2008). However, I show that the condition on argument alternation can be written solely by the syntactic terms without any stipulation of constructional meaning; namely, when vdat is selected in a numeration of a ditransitive verb, the derived verb is never licensed to participate in argument alternation, whereas when vacc [+multiple] is selected, the complex verb is licensed to participate in the alternation. A further contribution of my thesis is to accommodate a new pair within the causative-ditransitive paradigm in Japanese in addition to its already-existing membership between transitive causative verbs and give verbs (Kuno 1973, Miyagawa 1996): a pair of causative motion verbs and spray/load verbs. This new pairing further strengthens the existence of the causative-ditransitive paradigm as a natural class in Japanese. The pairing is solely motivated by the Dative Case Assignment that I propose.

本研究旨在探討雅美語雙及物結構是否也有與英文，及其他語言如日語、希臘語、國語，一樣有與格轉換的語言現象。雅美語有一特別的強調系統可將名詞組移到主詞的位置上。在探討雅美語的雙及物結構前，必須先探討幾個問題。首先，研究名詞組的格位標記是否會因動詞的性質（動詞的及物性、動詞的論元結構）不同而有所改變，其次，提出論證證明強調系統並不適用於形容雅美語特殊的移位系統，而語態系統較能更進一步的形容此一名詞移位現象。最後，提出雅美語並不是一個作格語言，而是一個valency-neutral的語態系統。解決這些問題後，發現雅美語中也有類似英文中的與格轉換的語言現象，此一發現也驗證了Harley的提案，擁有“有”動詞的語言就會有與格轉換的現象。 / The aim of the present study is to examine the existence of dative alternation in Yami, a language with a rich case marking system, that is similar to Japanese and Greek which are both reported to have dative alternation, as well as very unique ‘focus’ systems that can promote any argument into the subject position. Several issues have to be addressed: first, the case marking on the nominal is investigated in four most commonly observed ‘focus’ constructions from various aspects including degree of transitivity, thematic structure, and event classes,…etc; second, the term ‘focus’ is misleading and is identified as ‘voice’; third, arguments against Yami as an ergative language and supports for a valency-neutral voice system are provided.　Once these basic linguistic properties have been clarified, an examination of trivalent verbs shows positive evidence of dative alternation in Yami. Dative alternation is found with the two trivalent Yami verbs meaning ‘distribute out/give out’ and ‘mail’. This finding is in accordance with Harley’s proposal of the co-existence verbal HAVE and dative alternation, and also suggests that dative alternation is not a language-specific property.

The subject of the present thesis is an analysis of the ditransitive verbs envy and forgive in the ditransitive/double-object constructions, i.e., either the S-V-Oi-Od or S-V-O-Oprep argument structure, in which both objects are explicitly expressed. Envy and forgive represents marginal ditransitive verbs, whose accounts in major grammars and various studies are far from uniform. Occasionally considered idiosyncratic, the ditransitive use (i.e., the indirect pattern) of the two verbs is expected to decrease in frequency. Thus, the research aims to investigate the postverbal complementation preference of envy and forgive, and the way the preference changes over time. However, it is not the relative frequency of the S-V-Oi-Od pattern with respect to all remaining constructions that is of interest here, but its ratio to the frequency of the other available double object construction, the prepositional S-V-O-Oprep pattern. Additionally, the thesis provides a systematic overview of syntactic and semantic differences between envy and forgive as well as an account of their shared features and aspects. Particular attention is paid to the Oi/O realisation (e.g., the substantival or pronominal realisation) and the Od/Oprep realisation (namely, the substantival realisation, the pronominal realisation, the...