Ditransitive constructions in German

This dissertation analyzes indirect objects and free datives in German within the unification-based, non-derivational framework of Construction Grammar. Several independent constructions are posited to license the dativus commodi, dativus incommodi, and the dative of inalienable possession. Unlike the genuinely ditransitive structures licensed by indirect object verbs, pseudo-ditransitives, i.e., free datives, are not licensed by verb argument structures, but rather by lexically unfilled, phrasal constructions that place constraints on the semantic and syntactic valences of the verbs they welcome. In this way, the thesis accounts for the fact that free datives have all the syntactic features of genuine arguments, yet they are not selected by the verbs which structurally govern them. In other words, the lexical entries of verbs that are welcomed by free dative constructions do not themselves specify this possibility in their lexical entries.;In Construction Grammar, the licensing mechanisms that constitute the grammar are described in terms of their semantic and syntactic features and are further specified with regard to their valence requirements. It is the goal of this approach to posit the minimum number of constructions necessary to license the data and to account for their syntactic and semantic idiosyncrasies. Abstract phrase types, i.e., phrasal constructions without lexical material, are themselves meaningful and describable in the same terms that are used to describe lexical entries, viz., syntactic and semantic features and dependency relations.;Identification and formulation of the various constructions leads to a view of the ditransitive category as a cluster of superficially similar, yet independently licensed forms. Therefore, a loose network of constructions is proposed that accounts for the similarities among its members in terms of syntactic mimicry. The resemblance between free dative constructions and their lexically licensed models is purposeful. Pseudo-ditransitive constructions mimic the ditransitive argument structure in order to participate in the case-assignment and word order regularities that characterize their models.