The Distribution of the Hebrew Possessive Dative Construction: Guided by Unaccusativity or Prominence?

Abstract

This article challenges the empirical generalization that the possessed element in the Hebrew possessive dative ( PD) construction cannot be an external argument (Borer and Grodzinsky 1986), a generalization that has been leveraged in the use of the PD construction as an unaccusativity diagnostic. An acceptability judgment experiment shows that the PD construction is dispreferred when the possessor is less prominent than the possessee on the animacy or definiteness scale; however, it shows no effect of unaccusativity, raising serious doubts regarding the construction's validity as an unaccusativity diagnostic.

Reflexive verbs in Hebrew: Deep unaccusativity meets lexical semantics

“…The other diagnostic proposed in the literature on Hebrew is the possessive dative, which has recently been re-characterized by Gafter (2014a) and Linzen (2014Linzen ( , 2016 as a diagnostic of saliency or animacy rather than unaccusativity. Gafter (2014a) gives the following contrast by way of example: (43) a. ha-karborator neheras le-dan.…”

“…Gafter (2014a) gives the following contrast by way of example: (43) a. ha-karborator neheras le-dan. the-carburetor ruined.mid to-Dan 'Dan's carburetor got ruined.'…”

Inchoatives in causative clothing

“…They also pass unaccusativity diagnostics, although these are are fickle in Hebrew: the "possessive dative" of Borer and Grodzinsky (1986) has been critiqued by Gafter (2014a), Linzen (2014) and Bar-Asher Siegal andBoneh (2015, 2016), while verb preposing (Verb-Subject order in an otherwise SVO language, Shlonsky 1987) is not always reliable. See Kastner (2017) for discussion.…”