New facts from Fongbe on the double object constructions

This paper bears on theoretical issues raised by the double object construction. On the basis of Fongbe data, the following issues are considered: (1) parameters proposed for the availability of double object construction in particular grammars, (2) the Theme/Goal asymmetries, (3) the semantic of the double object construction as opposed to the double complement construction, (4) the claimed transformational relationship between the double object construction and the double complement construction, (5) the syntactic representation of the double object construction, (6) the property that allows verbs to participate in the double object construction