Scope and the structure of ditransitives in SVO languages
Klaus Abels
January 2024 

Janke & Neeleman (2012. “Ascending and Descending VPs in English”. In: Linguistic Inquiry 43.2, pp. 151–190.) propose that in English V-IO-DO (verb-indirect objectdirect object) structures are rightward descending ([V [ IO [tV DO]]]) while V-DOIO structures are usually rightward ascending ([[V DO] IO]). The current paper shows that Janke & Neeleman’s conclusion holds for other SVO languages as well. Crucial data come from quantifier scope and a number of other structural diagnostics. The novel generalization concerning quantifier scope put forward here is that IO can always take scope over DO (irrespective of the postverbal order of the objects and of whether the language allows only surface scope or both surface and non-surface scope) and that DO can take scope over IO only in the order V-DO-IO and only in languages that independently allow non-surface scope.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/008560 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Abels, Klaus (2025). “Scope and the structure of ditransitives in SVO languages”. In: Generation Flex: Flexible Syntax, 25 years on. Ed. by Marika Lekakou, Kriszta Eszter Szendrői, and Robert Truswell. Berlin: Language Science Press.
keywords:	double object constructions, quantifier scope, lca, to-dative constructions, scope freezing, semantics, syntax
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