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.

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...

Os verbos que expressam eventos de transferência/movimento no PB são formados a partir de Raízes que envolvem, em sua semântica, um agente, um elemento transferido/movido e um recebedor/alvo. Geralmente, esses verbos formam construções sintáticas ditransitivas, em que o agente é expresso por meio do sujeito, o elemento transferido/movido por meio de um objeto direto e o recebedor/alvo por meio de um objeto indireto. Nesses contextos sintáticos, o objeto indireto tem suscitado, na literatura pertinente, algumas discussões sobre sua natureza, como: argumento ou adjunto, e, ainda, complemento dativo ou complemento oblíquo. Essas discussões demonstram a indefinição do estatuto sintático-semântico desse elemento para as teorias linguísticas. Entendemos que essas discussões estão ligadas à concepção de estrutura da gramática assumida pelos diferentes pesquisadores e, também, ao modo como estes entendem que as noções de estrutura argumental e de estrutura sintática interagem dentro dessa concepção. Em outras palavras, o debate surge, pois, na caracterização da relação gramatical do objeto indireto com o verbo, é fundamental que o pesquisador disponha de uma teoria da estrutura argumental que lhe permita estabelecer o mapeamento e o licenciamento dos argumentos na sintaxe. Assumimos, neste trabalho, a estrutura da gramática tal como esta é concebida pela Morfologia Distribuída (Distribuited Morphology, doravante, DM) (Halle & Marantz 1993). Segundo a DM, os morfemas são constituídos por traços sintáticosemânticos disponibilizados pela Gramática Universal. Os verbos consistem de morfemas-l (Raízes) em determinadas relações estruturais com morfemas-f, licenciadores de estruturas sintáticas de natureza verbal. Não pressupondo um mapeamento determinístico das propriedades semânticas das Raízes na sintaxe, a DM consegue explicar a possibilidade de um mesmo verbo ocorrer em mais de uma estrutura sintática, sem precisar recorrer, por exemplo, a duas entradas lexicais para esse mesmo verbo. Dessa forma, constitui-se em um modelo mais vantajoso para explicar fenômenos relacionados à estrutura argumental e à realização de argumentos do que modelos baseados na entrada lexical, o que justifica nossa opção teórica. Além disso, essa teoria nos permite participar das discussões mencionadas acima sobre o objeto indireto. Assumimos que esse elemento tem o estatuto de argumento dos verbos de transferência/movimento (VT/M) no PB, sendo um complemento dativo. Pressupostos como a inserção tardia de fonologia em Spell-Out (uma operação póssintática) e a subespecificação do item de vocabulário, assinaladas pela DM, dão conta de explicar os casos em que o objeto indireto não é realizado fonologicamente, ocorrendo na estrutura sintática como um argumento nulo anafórico ou como um argumento implícito sem referência anafórica, bem como os casos em que esse elemento não ocorre na estrutura sintática derivada pelo verbo dar. / Verbs which express transfer/motion events in Brazilian Portuguese are formed by Roots that involve, in their semantics, an agent, a transferred/motioned element and a receiver/goal. In general, these verbs form ditransitive syntactic constructions, in which the agent is expressed through the subject, the transferred/motioned element through de direct object and the receiver/goal through the indirect object. In these syntactic contexts, the indirect object has aroused, in the relevant literature, some discussions about its nature: argument or adjunct, and, yet, dative complement or oblique complement. These discussions show the indefinition of the syntactic-semantic status of this element inside linguistic theories. We understand that these discussions are connected to the conception of grammar structure assumed by the different researchers, and, also, to the way they understand argument structure and syntactic structure interact inside this conception. In other words, the debate arises for, in the characterization of the grammatical relation of the indirect object with the verb, it is crucial that the researcher has an argument structure theory that allows him to establish the arguments mapping and licensing in syntax. In this research, we assume the Distributed Morphologys (DM) (Halle & Marantz 1993) grammar structure. According to DM, morphemes consist of syntacticsemantic features supplied by the Universal Grammar. Verbs consist of l-morphemes (Roots) in specific structural relations with f-morphemes, which license verbal syntactic structures. Since DM does not presupposes a deterministic Roots semantic properties mapping in syntax, it gets to explain how is it possible that one verb occur in more than one syntactic structure, without needing to appeal to two lexical entries for this same verb, for example. Thus, DM is a more advantageous model to explain argument structure and argument realization related phenomenon than lexical entry based models, what justifies our theoretical choice. Furthermore, this theory allows us to take part in the discussions listed above about the indirect object. We assume that this element is an argument of the transfer/motion verbs in Brazilian Portuguese and that it is a dative complement. Assumptions like phonology late insertion in Spell-Out (a pos-syntactic operation) and vocabulary item specification, pointed out by DM, get to explain the cases in which the indirect object is not phonologically realized, and occur in the syntactic structure as an anaphoric null argument, or as an implicit argument, without anaphoric reference. Besides that, these theoretical resources also get to explain the cases in which this element does not occur in the syntactic structure derived by the verb give.

Os verbos que expressam eventos de transferência/movimento no PB são formados a partir de Raízes que envolvem, em sua semântica, um agente, um elemento transferido/movido e um recebedor/alvo. Geralmente, esses verbos formam construções sintáticas ditransitivas, em que o agente é expresso por meio do sujeito, o elemento transferido/movido por meio de um objeto direto e o recebedor/alvo por meio de um objeto indireto. Nesses contextos sintáticos, o objeto indireto tem suscitado, na literatura pertinente, algumas discussões sobre sua natureza, como: argumento ou adjunto, e, ainda, complemento dativo ou complemento oblíquo. Essas discussões demonstram a indefinição do estatuto sintático-semântico desse elemento para as teorias linguísticas. Entendemos que essas discussões estão ligadas à concepção de estrutura da gramática assumida pelos diferentes pesquisadores e, também, ao modo como estes entendem que as noções de estrutura argumental e de estrutura sintática interagem dentro dessa concepção. Em outras palavras, o debate surge, pois, na caracterização da relação gramatical do objeto indireto com o verbo, é fundamental que o pesquisador disponha de uma teoria da estrutura argumental que lhe permita estabelecer o mapeamento e o licenciamento dos argumentos na sintaxe. Assumimos, neste trabalho, a estrutura da gramática tal como esta é concebida pela Morfologia Distribuída (Distribuited Morphology, doravante, DM) (Halle & Marantz 1993). Segundo a DM, os morfemas são constituídos por traços sintáticosemânticos disponibilizados pela Gramática Universal. Os verbos consistem de morfemas-l (Raízes) em determinadas relações estruturais com morfemas-f, licenciadores de estruturas sintáticas de natureza verbal. Não pressupondo um mapeamento determinístico das propriedades semânticas das Raízes na sintaxe, a DM consegue explicar a possibilidade de um mesmo verbo ocorrer em mais de uma estrutura sintática, sem precisar recorrer, por exemplo, a duas entradas lexicais para esse mesmo verbo. Dessa forma, constitui-se em um modelo mais vantajoso para explicar fenômenos relacionados à estrutura argumental e à realização de argumentos do que modelos baseados na entrada lexical, o que justifica nossa opção teórica. Além disso, essa teoria nos permite participar das discussões mencionadas acima sobre o objeto indireto. Assumimos que esse elemento tem o estatuto de argumento dos verbos de transferência/movimento (VT/M) no PB, sendo um complemento dativo. Pressupostos como a inserção tardia de fonologia em Spell-Out (uma operação póssintática) e a subespecificação do item de vocabulário, assinaladas pela DM, dão conta de explicar os casos em que o objeto indireto não é realizado fonologicamente, ocorrendo na estrutura sintática como um argumento nulo anafórico ou como um argumento implícito sem referência anafórica, bem como os casos em que esse elemento não ocorre na estrutura sintática derivada pelo verbo dar. / Verbs which express transfer/motion events in Brazilian Portuguese are formed by Roots that involve, in their semantics, an agent, a transferred/motioned element and a receiver/goal. In general, these verbs form ditransitive syntactic constructions, in which the agent is expressed through the subject, the transferred/motioned element through de direct object and the receiver/goal through the indirect object. In these syntactic contexts, the indirect object has aroused, in the relevant literature, some discussions about its nature: argument or adjunct, and, yet, dative complement or oblique complement. These discussions show the indefinition of the syntactic-semantic status of this element inside linguistic theories. We understand that these discussions are connected to the conception of grammar structure assumed by the different researchers, and, also, to the way they understand argument structure and syntactic structure interact inside this conception. In other words, the debate arises for, in the characterization of the grammatical relation of the indirect object with the verb, it is crucial that the researcher has an argument structure theory that allows him to establish the arguments mapping and licensing in syntax. In this research, we assume the Distributed Morphologys (DM) (Halle & Marantz 1993) grammar structure. According to DM, morphemes consist of syntacticsemantic features supplied by the Universal Grammar. Verbs consist of l-morphemes (Roots) in specific structural relations with f-morphemes, which license verbal syntactic structures. Since DM does not presupposes a deterministic Roots semantic properties mapping in syntax, it gets to explain how is it possible that one verb occur in more than one syntactic structure, without needing to appeal to two lexical entries for this same verb, for example. Thus, DM is a more advantageous model to explain argument structure and argument realization related phenomenon than lexical entry based models, what justifies our theoretical choice. Furthermore, this theory allows us to take part in the discussions listed above about the indirect object. We assume that this element is an argument of the transfer/motion verbs in Brazilian Portuguese and that it is a dative complement. Assumptions like phonology late insertion in Spell-Out (a pos-syntactic operation) and vocabulary item specification, pointed out by DM, get to explain the cases in which the indirect object is not phonologically realized, and occur in the syntactic structure as an anaphoric null argument, or as an implicit argument, without anaphoric reference. Besides that, these theoretical resources also get to explain the cases in which this element does not occur in the syntactic structure derived by the verb give.

This dissertation presents the findings of an investigation of adnominal possession and ditransitives on the basis of data from Modern Greek. The general thesis of the dissertation is that possessive DPs constitute nominal counterparts to ditransitive constructions. Greek ditransitives consist of double object constructions and prepositional dative constructions, which are analyzed as low applicatives; the former with possessive properties, the latter with locative. Double object constructions, unlike prepositional datives, are associated with restrictions concerning animacy, affectedness and number features on the recipient. A-movement (a)symmetries in ditransitives are argued to reduce to underlying phase structure and the movement properties of the applicative head. The dissertation shows that the possessive/locative dichotomy associated with Greek ditransitives is reproducible in the realm of adnominal possession. Prenominal possessors pattern both syntactically and semantically with dative recipients in double object constructions, while postnominal possessors display affiliation with PP-recipients in prepositional dative constructions. Binding diagnostics furthermore indicate two distinct Small Clause structures for Greek possessive DPs, syntactically identical with the structure of ditransitives.

Uppsatsen behandlar konstruktionsmönster vid de bitransitiva verben sända och giva i äldre forn­svenska, yngre fornsvenska och äldre nysvenska. I uppsatsen undersöks dels för­del­ningen mellan de fyra konstruktionsalternativen DAT-ACK, ACK-DAT, PP-ACK och ACK-PP för sända respektive giva under var och en av de undersökta perioderna, dels vilka se­mantiska och informationsstrukturella faktorer som ligger bakom valet av en viss kon­struk­tions­va­riant vid ett visst verb under en viss tidsperiod. Resultaten visar att för verbet sända fö­re­lig­g­er inga sig­nifikanta skillnader i för­delningen av konstruktionsalternativ mellan de tre tids­pe­ri­oderna. Verbet konstrueras med ACK-PP i över hälften av fallen under alla tidsperioderna, me­dan DAT-ACK genomgående står för ungefär en tredjedel av beläggen. Verbet giva upp­vi­s­ar däremot en signifikant minskad användning av ACK-DAT mellan yngre fornsvenska och äl­d­re nysvenska, medan bruket av ACK-PP ökar under samma period. Mellan äldre forn­sven­ska och yngre fornsvenska ökar bruket av DAT-ACK, medan ACK-PP blir ovanligare. Båda des­sa tendenser beror dock på en specifik användning av ACK-PP i Fornsvenska legendariet, och speg­lar förmodligen inte utvecklingen i språket som helhet. Vad gäller de informationsstruktu­r­ella fak­torerna påverkar dessa valet av konstruktionstyp i stort sett som väntat, i så måtto att kor­t­a­re, pronominella och definita led (dvs. informationsstrukturellt tematiska led) ofta pla­ce­ras fö­re längre, icke-pronominella och indefinita led (informationsstrukturellt rematiska). Ana­lysen av de semantiska variablerna visade att DAT-ACK vid båda verben gynnas av ani­ma­ta m/m-ar­gument (mottagare/mål) och abstrakta p/t-argument (patient/tema), medan ACK-PP å andra si­dan gynnas av inanimata m/m-argument och konkreta p/t-argument. Vid verbet sän­da kon­stru­eras DAT-ACK enbart med animata m/m-argument, medan verbet giva i äldre och yngre forn­svenska endast konstrueras med ACK-PP om m/m-argumentet är inanimat. En se­mantisk ut­vidgning av ACK-PP vid verbet giva uppstår emellertid i äldre nysvenska, där kon­struk­tions­varianten blir kompatibel även med animata m/m-argument. ACK-DAT är vid verbet gi­va vanligare när p/t-argumentet betecknar någonting konkret, vilket indikerar en se­man­tisk upp­delning inte bara mellan dubbelobjektsvariant och prepositionsvariant utan även mel­lan de bå­da dubbelobjektsvarianterna DAT-ACK och ACK-DAT.

The subject of the present study is an analysis of five ditransitive verbs: give, lend, send, offer and show. The study focuses on the position of the two objects and on the factors that have an impact on the object ordering. An attempt is here made to provide a systematic overview of the position of the two objects with respect to their realization (i.e. substantival or pronominal). As regards the realization of the two objects, four types are distinguished: i. both Oi /Oprep and Od realized by nouns; ii. both Oi /Oprep and Od realized by pronouns; iii. Oi /Oprep realized by a noun and Od by a pronoun; iv. Oi /Oprep realized by a pronoun and Od by a noun. The position of the objects is assumed to be associated with the distribution of communicative dynamism or in other words with the principle of end-focus, i.e. that given information tends to precede new information. The second principle that operates in the ordering the two objects is the principle of end-weight. Of the three (or four, including intonation) factors whose interplay determines the FSP function of a clause element, in the case of ditransitive complementation the most important role is played by the contextual factor. Therefore, particular attention is paid to the context-dependence / independence of the two objects. The present...

The present thesis is concerned with the syntactic, semantic and FSP aspects of ditransitive complementation. All these aspects are discussed not only theoretically, but mainly practically in an analysis of two ditransitive verbs: blame and provide. For the purpose of the present analysis, 200 sentences (100 for each of the analyzed verbs) were excerpted from the British National Corpus. The analyzed verbs enter into two possible sentence structures. The first construction includes a subject and verb as well as a direct object and a prepositional object (SVOdOprep); the alternative construction includes a subject and verb as well as an indirect object and a prepositional object (SVOiOprep). One of the points of analysis is a quantitative formulation of the number of occurrences of each of the respective sentence structures for the analyzed verbs within the excerpted material. Within the ditransitive construction we may sometimes encounter object omission of either of the objects (more commonly the indirect object). The analysis concentrates on the possibilities of object omission within ditransitive constructions with the two analyzed verbs. Part-of-speech representation of both objects is also a matter of analysis; there are altogether four possible part-of-speech patterns depending on whether...

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.

<p>Previous research has shown that the type of ditransitive sentence preferred by English speakers in a particular linguistic context is significantly influenced by the relative ‘givenness’ of the post verbal arguments (i.e. the assumption that the referent of a linguistic expression is known to the speaker/hearer). This ‘givenness constraint’ has also been shown to play a role in the ditransitive sentence preferences of bilingual English speakers. Some have claimed that the realization of the givenness constraint in the ditransitive sentence preferences of bilingual English speakers is significantly influenced by the characteristics of their dominant language; however, no studies that I am aware of have explicitly compared the preferences of speakers whose dominant languages feature different sets of ditransitive sentence types, making this claim difficult to evaluate. Additionally, the effects of task type (i.e. the experimental task(s) employed by a particular study), and variables related to speakers’ experience with English and English proficiency, relative to language background are unclear. This study attempts to clarify the role of language background in the realization of the givenness constraint by recruiting three groups of English speakers: German-English bilingual speakers living in Germany, Spanish-English bilingual speakers living in Mexico, and monolingual English speakers living in the United States. The three groups completed three tasks, all of which were administered over the internet: a scalar acceptability judgement task, a forced choice task, and a self-paced reading task. The results from the two bilingual groups showed significant effects of language background, even after factors related to English proficiency and English experience were taken into account. The results support an interpretation where language background plays a significant role in the realization of the givenness constraint on bilingual speakers’ ditransitive sentence preferences. </p>