The German POSSESSOR DATIVE CONSTRUCTION (PDC) is an instance of EXTERNAL POSSESSION: a single nominal acts simultaneously as possessor, that is, a subpart of a larger nominal phrase, and as a BENEFACTIVE or MALEFACTIVE (AFFECTEE) argument of the verb. The challenge is to understand the mechanisms that make this dual functioning possible. Following Landau [Lingua 107 (1999) 1], this paper presents a POSSESSOR RAISING analysis, arguing that the POSSESSOR DATIVE (PD) moves from the specifier of the possessed nominal to a verbal argument position. The analysis is implemented in a dynamic structure-building framework, where heads with their selectional features are introduced in the course of the derivation, and it is in principle possible that an argument that gets merged into the structure to take on one thematic role raises into a newly built sentence domain to fulfill another thematic role. This movement and the resulting double h-role assignment are crucially driven by formal features; that is, both stem from the fact that, in its origin site, the raised argument is not case-licensed. An additional caselicensing head is needed for the derivation to converge. This head is an affectee light verb which assigns inherent dative case to the argument in its specifier. Thus, unlike Landau's account of PDCs in Hebrew, where PDs can be interpreted as affected

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Abstract.  The central issue addressed here is syntactic locality, and the main proposal is that movement and anaphoric relations are governed by a unified concept of locality. The specific phenomena to be investigated are (i) infinitive constructions, in particular, Accusativus cum Infinitivo (AcI) complements, (ii) the German Possessor Dative Construction (PDC), with a dative nominal playing the role of both possessor and affectee, and (iii) binding, the conditions under which reflexive and nonreflexive pronouns may occur. The focus is mainly on binding and how to account for instances of noncomplementarity, but also on the PDC, which can be analyzed as possessor raising. Ultimately, it will become clear that the unifying principle of locality must be the phase, and that phasehood determines the transparency/opacity of phrases (CP, vP, DP, and PP) for both movement and anaphoric relations.

Abstract. Based on a diachronic corpus search, this paper proposes that dative rather than accusative-marking on the first object of German double-accusative verbs like lehren 'teach' (as also discussed in Lang 2007) and the corresponding passivization possibilities stem from the first object being interpreted as Recipient (sympathyinvoking co-participant, see Lehmann et al. 2004) rather than animate Patient and the second object being interpreted as inanimate Patient rather than adverbial accusative. In addition, a formal case-based account of German active and passive (di)transitive constructions is offered, making a three-way distinction between (i) structural, (ii) predictable inherent, and (iii) idiosyncratic lexical case (in line with Woolford 2006).