Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Sprach- und literaturwissenschaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Slawistik und Hungarologie

Mi 19.1., 12:30-14: Dagmara Grabska & Klaus Abels (UCL): The direct object is always low: the structure of ditransitive VPs in Polish

In this talk we propose a structural analysis of Polish ditransitive VPs according to which the direct object (DO) is generated lower than the indirect object (IO) regardless of the linear order between the two arguments and stays low. Using evidence from focus projection, predicate clefts and idioms, we support the view that IO-DO is the neutral order of Polish ditransitives and that it is associated with a rightward descending verbal shell structure (contra Bailyn’s 2010 account of Russian ditransitives and in accordance with Wiland’s 2009 and Łęska’s 2019 account of Polish ditransitives). Unlike Wiland and Łęska, who analyse the DO-IO order as being derived from IO-DO by leftward movement of the DO, we entertain a simple rightward ascending structure for this order. Preliminary evidence for this structure comes from quantifier scope interactions, as well as the order and scope of adverbs.