The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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Now note that extracting a part of the internal argument of the discussed [-c] verbs in
English is grammatical (105). Thus extraction in (105) patterns with extraction out of
the Accusative DP object of the verb destroy (104a), rather than with the
ungrammatical extraction out of the DP embedded in a PP (104c,d):
(105) a. Which president did you support [ ?? a visit of t] [-c] ?
b. Which president did you betray [ ?? relatives of t] [-c] ?
On the assumption that the complement of the English [-c] verbs which appear with
no overt preposition is a DP rather than a PP (headed by an empty P), the extraction
facts exemplified in (105) follow.
Let me summarize the assumptions which allow us to adopt the claim that the
[-c] cluster in English can be realized via Dative Case:
(106) Dative Case in English
a. Dative Case is a possible device to check the Case of a nominal in some languages,
including English.
b. Dative and Accusative Cases are (morphologically) non-distinct in English.
c. Dative Case in English is instantiated either through the preposition to (e.g. I gave a
book to John), or as a Dative DP that has to be adjacent to the verb (e.g. I gave John a
book). 61 With (106) we can analyze English [-c] verbs occurring without an overt P
uniformly. A DP realizing the [-c] role is a Dative DP, similarly to the corresponding
Dative DPs in Russian or Hebrew, though without any morphological marking. 62 The
61 For analyses of the Dative construction and the Double Object construction see Oehrle 1976; Kayne
1984; Larson 1988a; Den Dikken 1995, Baker 1997, among many others).
62 This claim seems to be challenged in French. As far as full DPs are concerned, in French, like in
English, Accusative and Dative are morphologically non-distinct. However, it is standardly assumed
that the French pronominal clitics do exhibit this distinction (cf. Kayne 1975). Thus for instance, le is
analyzed as third person, singular, masculine Accusative clitic,and lui is its Dative counterpart. Given
this, the following example may seem problematic for the proposed Dative Case realization of the [-c]
role:
(i)
a. Je croit Jean
“I believe Jean.”
b. Je le/*lui croit
I him-Acc/him-Dat believe.
“I believe him.”