El Complement indirecte: l'alternança datiu / acusatiu

Abstract

This article studies the government of certain verbs whose objects vacillate between having an originally indirect function and a new direct function. The analysis, which focuses on agentive verbs (pegar hit, pagar pay, escriure write, trucar knock, xiular whistle, etc.), aims to show that the absence of a systematic syntactic or dialectal study in this area has resulted in lack of homogeneity in the descriptions provided by such works of reference as the Diccionari de lInstitut dEstudis Catalans and grammars that cover the topic. In response to this, this paper offers a syntactic analysis and classification of the set of verbs affected and points out the existing dialectal tendencies. In short, it is a contribution to clarifying the issue and a possible benchmark for a reassessment and revision of syntactic normativity.