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Argument Interpretations in the Ditransitive Construction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2010

Niina Ning Zhang
Niina Ning Zhang
Affiliation:
Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Jägerstr. 10–11, 10117 Berlin, Germany. E-mail: zhang@zas.gwz-berlin.de
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Extract

An indirect object can be interpreted as a Provider or as a Recipient. The evidence considered in this article suggests that the two interpretations can be morphologically analytic in Chinese and typologically parametrized for certain natural classes of verbs in English and Chinese. Two VP projections are proposed for the ditransitive construction. The head of the lower VP can be phonologically realized or null. The content of the null verb is parametrized across languages. The contrasts in indirect object interpretations in these languages are explained in terms of the lexical meanings of the null verb. The contrasts in verb occurrence restrictions in these languages are accounted for by the interpretable feature compatibilities in head adjunction from the lower to the higher VP.

Type
Review Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 21 , Special Issue 2 , December 1998 , pp. 179 - 209
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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