Quoting Rob Haden <magwich78@...>:
> Thanks for your reply, Mathias. The sentences you list above are
> examples
> of what I would call "English preposition-omitting ambiguity."
> Prepositions indicating oblique relationships are often omitted in
> casual
> speech in English, giving rise to sentences like "I give John the
> dog."
> While such sentences can be sorted out by fluent English-speakers via
> context, they may be difficult for others to sort through.
Sure this has anything to do with dropped prepositions? "I give John the dog"
looks EXTREMELY much like the dative constructions found in other Germanic
languages.
Andreas