A Lexical-Functional Account of Spanish Dative Usage

Abstract

This paper explores the interaction between Dative Clitic Doubling (DClD) in Spanish ditransitives and some semantic and syntactic factors. Usage data give statistically significant evidence that a goal is more likely to be doubled when definite or when it precedes the theme. These facts are accounted for under the hypothesis that goals alternate between an oblique function and an object function, and that dative clitics double goals only in the latter case. DClD, then, is seen as the Spanish equivalent of the English dative alternation. Ditransitives like dar ‘give’ and its English translation are analyzed as cloaked causatives, casting the dative alternation is a special case of the alternation between direct and indirect causatives. Some non-trivial differences between English and Spanish in the realization of the goal are pointed out, and are made to follow from a more general typological contrast between accusative languages and primary object languages in their treatment of causatives. The analysis is framed in the formalism of Lexical-Functional Grammar.