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Microparameters in the Grammar of Basque
Edited by Beatriz Fernández and Jon Ortiz de Urbina
[Language Faculty and Beyond 13] 2016
► pp. 67–92

Datives in Basque bivalent unergatives

| Deusto University
| UPV | EHU
Bivalent predicates which mark their sole object dative rather than absolutive/accusative are unexpected under the assumption that dative is associated with a ‘second complement’. Apparently first complements of morphologically transitive verbs are also found in Basque, in the main semantic classes already identified by Blume (1998). Morphologically, this sole object is indistinguishable from the indirect object of trivalent predicates of the give-type: both of them share dative case and trigger identical agreement marking on a ditransitive-like auxiliary form. In this chapter, we will focus on the syntactic behavior of these datives and, following McFadden (2004), we will show that similarities with indirect objects extends also to syntax, as attested in: (i) secondary predication, (ii) impersonal/passive clauses, (iii) adnominals, and (iv) causativization and relativization. These dative objects, then, differ from DOM dative complements in Basque (Fernández and Rezac, this volume) both in syntactic behavior and in distribution.
Keywords: adnominals, DOM, dative, impersonal clauses, indirect objects, secondary predicates, unergatives
Published online: 9 September 2016
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.13.04ort
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