An Aspectual Classification of English Ditransitive Verbs

In this paper I examine the types of events associated with ditransitive verbs that describe caused possession by looking at their lexical aspectual properties, a methodology that has proven fruitful for the exploration of (in)transitive verbs. I show that as a whole these ditransitives share a number of aspectual properties in common with (in)transitive verbs of change of state and motion, suggesting a single, shared underlying analysis. However, I also show that there is considerable microvariation among ditransitive verbs in exactly how their aspectual properties are determined, with one key factor being how much of the meaning of each verb is entailed directly and how much is cancelable. On the basis of this I propose an aspectuallybased classification of ditransitive verbs quite similar to previously proposed classes of (in)transitive verbs. I also show that the particular analysis I develop may shed some light on which ditransitives participate in the dative alternation.