Background. The internal structure of ditransitive verbs like give or send has been given a lot of attention in the generative literature. Two main approaches to these verbs in English can be distinguished: in the first approach, the double object construction (DOC) (1-a) is derivationally related to the structure with a dative PP (1-b) by an NP-movement accompanied by “dative-case absorption” ...

A basic sense of the issues can be garnered from a look at Halle's one stated rule: “Shorten the head vowel of a branching foot.” This brief imperative fairly bristles with unasked questions. Why shorten rather than lengthen? indeed, why do anything at all? Why head rather than nonhead ? indeed, why not affect both? Why branching rather than nonbranching? indeed, why not operate on any foot? Ov...