The Category P Features, Projections, Interpretation

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(36) a. dan šalax praxim (le-rina) Dative
Dan sent flowers (to-Rina)
b. dan šalax et ha-yeladim *(le-pariz) Directional
Dan sent Acc the-children (to-Paris)
(ii) Similarly to the canonic Dative verb give, Dative shift is possible, if šalax (‘sent’) is
used as Dative (i.e. the Goal argument precedes and c-commands Theme, see fn. 18 in
4.2.2). Thus (37a) can be shifted easily to (37b):
(37) a. dan šalax praxim le-rina
Dan sent flowers to-Rina
b. dan šalax le-rina praxim
Dan sent to-Rina flowers
However, once šalax is clearly Directional, namely its Goal argument is interpreted as
spatial Goal, rather than a Recipient, the shift is infelicitous, as shown in (38b): 27 ’ 28
(38) a. dan šalax et rina le-pariz
Dan sent Acc Rina to-Paris
intermediary to a recipient’). This additional manner specification arguably underlies the possibility not to
realize the Goal argument of the Dative send (the sketched direction is similar in spirit to the theory
outlined in Erteschik-Shir and Rapoport in preparation, to appear).
27 The shift is possible only with a specific intonation, a strong stress on the Theme argument, or if the
Theme argument is heavy (i). Clearly, then, the shift in the Directional construction is not comparable to
the Dative shift, but rather related to Focus constructions. (For a different view see Belletti and Shlonsky
(1995)).
(i) dan šalax la-pgiša be-london et ha-orexdin haxi tov šelo
Dan sent to+the-meeting in-London Acc the-lawyer best his
“Dan sent his best lawyer to the meeting in London.”
28 The fact that English does not have either the PP DP order or the shifted version (i.e. V DP Goal DP Theme )
when the verb is Directional (*Dan sent Paris Rina), can be accounted for on the assumption (implicit in
the text) that Dative shift and Focus shift are different operations. Dative shift is arguably a Case-related
phenomenon, whereas Focus shift is clearly not. Whatever mechanisms underlie the Dative shift and give
rise to the Double Object construction in English (Kayne 1984, Larson 1988a, Den Dikken 1995, among
others), they are not operative in the Directional construction. Thus the PP DP order in the Directional
construction may, in principle, arise only from the Focus shift. However, permutation of DP PP
arguments is not possible in English, as it violates the V-DP adjacency required for the Case assignment
in English (Stowell 1981) (modulo Heavy NP-shift).