Dativemarking

Dativemarking refers to grammatical marking that encodes the dative, a semantic role commonly associated with indirect objects such as recipients, beneficiaries, or experiencers. In languages with overt case systems, the dative is realized as a distinct morphological form on nouns, pronouns, or determiners, and sometimes as a dedicated postposition or clitic. Dativemarking contrasts with the accusative (direct object) and other cases. In many languages that lack a productive dative case, the meaning is expressed by prepositions such as to or for, or by word order.

Typology and functions: Dative marking is widespread in languages such as German, Russian, Polish, Icelandic, Finnish, and Hungarian, where nouns take a dative ending or articles change form. In English and related languages, the dative is typically expressed with the preposition to or with double object constructions, a phenomenon known as the dative construction. Dative marking is often used with ditransitive verbs (give, send, show), with possession and beneficiary expressions, and with experiencer or interest constructions.

Examples: German: Ich schenke dem Mann einen Apfel. dem Mann marks the recipient; einen Apfel is the direct object. Russian: Я дал другу книгу. другу is the dative of the indirect object “friend”; книгу is the accusative “book.”

Cross-linguistic variation: The precise functions and form of the dative differ by language. Some languages have multiple dative-like cases; others use prepositional phrases or alternative word orders. Dative marking interacts with morphosyntactic alignment, ditransitives, and possession constructions, contributing to the grammatical encoding of participants in events.