dativedepend

Dativedepend is a term used in linguistic dependency grammar to denote a specific syntactic relation between a verb and a noun phrase in the dative case. It is used to capture the link between a verb and its dative argument, typically the recipient, beneficiary, or experiencer of an action. The concept helps distinguish the dative argument from other arguments in languages with rich case marking or ditransitive constructions.

In dependency analyses, dativedepend is represented as a labeled edge from the verb to the dative noun phrase. Some annotation schemes use a label such as dativedepend or dat to indicate this link, facilitating cross-linguistic comparisons of dative structures. The approach aims to separate the dative argument from other dependents like the subject and the direct object, clarifying valency and argument structure.

Examples vary by language. In a language with explicit dative marking, a sentence like a hypothetical equivalent of “She gives the man the book” would connect the verb to the dative NP “the man” via a dativedepend relation, while the accusative object “the book” would bear a different relation (for example, direct object). In languages with less overt dative marking, the construction is inferred from case, prepositions, or word order, and dativedepend serves as a theoretical label rather than a surface cue.

Dativedepend is not universally adopted; some grammars treat dative arguments as indirect objects or as separate beneficiary roles. In computational linguistics, the label can aid training data and parsing for languages with clear dative marking, though its adoption varies across resources. See also dependency grammar, valency, dative case, and ditransitive constructions.