Two types of datives in Spanish: Caused possession vs. possessor raising

Abstract

This paper focuses on the notion of “caused possession” as the key factor responsible for a number of properties that Spanish dative structures show when inspected closely. Among other phenomena, the relationship between dative and prepositional structures is explored and some striking contrasts arising in passive and nominal environments are accounted for. The Spanish dative clitic is analysed as the locus of many of these structural and semantic properties and a unified explanation is offered for Spanish dative assignments in double object-like constructions.