Datives at Large

is a study of the syntactic and semantic properties of dative arguments. The main source of data is Spanish, where dative arguments can appear with all types of verbs, and can have a wide range of meanings: goal, possessor, s'ource, experiencer, affected object, causee, location, benefactive, malefactive, ethical dative. The challenge for a theory of dative arguments, which form. a natural class morphologically, is to expiain both what they have in common and how they differ syntactically and semantically. I argue that dative arguments have stroctural meanings, i.e., the meaning of a dative OP can be derived directly from the position in which it is licensed. To be able to predict the possible meanings of dative arguments, it is crucial to take into account the details of the syntactic configuration, which include the properties of the head that licenses the dativ € DP and of the functional heads tl\at constroct the event stmcture. TJative arguments are not direct arguments of the verb; they are, like subjects, licensed syntactically and semantically by a specialized head. This argument introducing head, the Applicative, licent;eS the dative DP as its specifier and relates this DP to the strocture it takes as a complerr~ent. The range of possible meanings of a dative OP is predicted from the rang