Re: THEORY: more questions

Paul Bennett wrote at 2003-11-25 15:52:21 (-0500)
 >
 > Hmm.
 >
 > Which is more grammatical:
 >
 > ?he gave me
 >
 > or
 >
 > ?he gave the book
 >
 > Maybe grammatical is the wrong word. Maybe "understandable" is a
 > better word, or, maybe, "unambiguous"?
 >
 > It's my understanding that the recipient/benefactive noun takes the
 > Oblique case in (almost?) all cases like this, leading me to wonder
 > whether "the book" is a greater candidate for direct-object-hood
 > than "me".
 >
 > Paul

Well, yes.  "Me" is the indirect object.  I'm not sure I see your
point.

http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAnIndirectObject.htm

(I agree that *"he gave the book" is closer to being acceptable.  You
get set phrases like "he gave blood" "he gave his life" and things
like "he gave $6000 last year".)

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