Ditransitives in British English Dialects

What determines whether we say She gave him a book instead of She gave a book to him? The author views this 'dative alternation' as a sociolinguistic variable and explores its distribution across different British English dialects, registers and time frames. It thereby offers a novel, language-external explanation of the choice of one construction over the other and sheds new light on British dialect syntax.

About the author

Johanna Gerwin, Christian-Albrecht-Universität zu Kiel, Germany.

Product details

• Authors: Johanna Gerwin
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.05.2014
• EAN: 9783110352146
• ISBN: 978-3-11-035214-6
• No. of pages: 237
• Dimensions: 156 mm x 16 mm x 235 mm
• Weight: 494 g
• Series: Topics in English Linguistics; Topics in English Linguistics [TiEL]; Topics in English Linguistics [TiEL]; Topics in English Linguistics; ISSN
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies