The French ethical dative. 13 syntactic tests

• Main Authors: Mélanie Jouitteau, Milan Rezac
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti 2007-01-01
• Series: Bucharest Working Papers in Linguistics
• Subjects: ethical dative; thematic-domain; case; C-system; morphosyntax; French
• Online Access: http://bwpl.unibuc.ro/index.pl/the_french_ethical_dative._13_syntactic_tests

We discuss the properties of ethical datives in French, assembling diagnostics to differentiate them from other datives and to establish their properties. Ethical datives are introduced above the thematic and Case/A-movement domains, and do not participate in these systems, unlike both core and extended (benefactive, possessor) datives. They are also independent of the C-system properties of Force, Finiteness and Tense. However, they are nevertheless integrated into the morphosyntax of the clause.