The “ditransitive construction ” with indirect object as a provider in Mandarin Chinese

ditransitive construction is the provider of a theme when it occurs after single root transference verbs, verbs of change of state or even consumption verbs, e.g., mai3 ‘buy’, da3-sui4 ‘break ’ and chi1‘eat’. (1) is an example, in which wo3 ‘I ’ is the provider of ping2guo3 ‘apple’. (1) Lao3li3 chi1 le wo3 yi2ge4 ping2guo3 Laoli eat PFV 1st one.CLF apple ‘Laoli ate one apple of mine ’ (Zhang: (11)b) However, this paper argues that there is no real ditransitive construction compatible with these types of verbs. Rather, the seemingly “ditransitive construction ” is actually a monotransitive construction. Tests such as object movement, wh-question and the addition of a possessive marker show that in this type of construction, the first post verbal NP, in the absence of a possessive marker de, is in fact the possessor of its following NP. The two NPs form a single larger NP constituent, which is then the single object of the verb. The monotransitive analysis explains why verbs of consumption in Mandarin can occur in a “ditransitive construction”, although they ar