dativecasemarking

Dativecasemarking, commonly referred to as dative case marking, is a grammatical feature in which a noun phrase bears the dative case to indicate roles such as the recipient, beneficiary, or indirect object of an action. In languages with explicit case systems, the dative marks the participant who receives something, benefits from the event, or experiences a state described by the verb.

In ditransitive constructions, the dative marks the indirect object. For example, in German, Ich gebe dem Mann das Buch (“I give the man the book”) uses dem Mann in the dative to show the recipient. In Russian, Ya dal knigu svoemu drugu (“I gave the book to my friend”) expresses the same role with the recipient in the dative. The dative can also mark experiencers in emotion verbs, as in German Es gefällt mir (“It pleases me”).

Cross-linguistically, dative casemarking varies. Some languages have a dedicated dative case on nouns or pronouns, others rely on prepositions or postpositions to convey the same function, and some merge dative with other case forms. In many languages, the dative coexists with accusative for the direct object, creating a three-argument structure for ditransitives, though typological patterns differ across language families.

Historically, dative marking often derives from a locative or benefactive meaning of “to” or “for,” later extending to recipients, beneficiaries, or experiencers in a broad range of verbal constructions. Dativecasemarking thus captures a key aspect of how languages encode participant roles in events.