The academic paper titled "Syntactic Representation of Dative and Double Object Structures" by Emad Ahmed Al-Tamari and Eyhab Abdulrazak Bader Eddin focuses on the syntactic and semantic relationship between Prepositional Dative Constructions (PDC) and Double Object Constructions (DOC) in English and Arabic. The primary research question explores whether these structures share a unified underlying syntax or if they are distinct.
The purpose of the study is to present a unified analysis supporting the single meaning approach, which argues that both PDC and DOC are semantically and syntactically related. The study aims to challenge the multiple meaning approach that views these structures as fundamentally distinct. The scope of the study includes an in-depth analysis of English and Arabic data to support the proposed single meaning approach.
Methodologically, the paper relies on syntactic analysis and data comparison from English and Arabic. The study adopts Bruening's (2014, 2018) arguments against c-command and supports the "precede-and-command" model as a replacement, which better fits the syntactic behavior of PDC and DOC.
The key findings reveal that PDC and DOC in both languages are indeed semantically and syntactically related. The study demonstrates that these structures share a common underlying syntax, where the verb's core meaning determines whether the construction will manifest as PDC or DOC. The proposed analysis includes the introduction of a Dative Phrase (DATP) as a complement of the dative verb, where the indirect object occupies the specifier position and the direct object occupies the complement position.
In conclusion, the study affirms that the single meaning approach offers a more accurate syntactic representation of dative structures. It suggests that PDC and DOC should not be viewed as distinct but rather as variations of a single underlying structure. The findings have significant implications for understanding the syntactic behavior of dative constructions across languages, particularly in how these structures are derived and related.