Reconciling “possessor” datives and “beneficiary” datives – Towards a unified voice account of dative binding in German

This paper argues for a neo-Davidsonian voice approach in the spirit of Kratzer (1996, 2003) to the syntax and semantics of dative arguments in German, and against syntactic or lexical theories of possessor raising. The voice approach is developed in some detail for so-called “possessor” datives, and later on extended to “beneficiary” datives. It is argued that, in both cases, the local contribution of the dative argument has to be kept strictly separate from an effect that arises across a distance. Locally, “possessor” and “beneficiary” datives encode (intended) affectees. By way of the compositional process of Variable Identification, which is modelled after, and extends, Kratzer’s (1996) Event Identification, the dative argument co-refers with another argument in the local c-command domain, viz. a possessor in the case of “possessor” datives, and a participant in a purposive predication in the case of “beneficiary” datives. Locality constraints on Variable Identification are reviewed, and it is tentatively concluded that intervening CP boundaries and propositional nouns limit the application of Variable Identification. The costly assumption of a principle like Variable Identification is further justified by its applicability to other voice phenomena, such as the middle voice of Ancient Greek, or reflexivity.