A corpus-based investigation of the dative alternation with TRANSFER verbs in the history of New High German (1650 until present)

This project explores the motivations behind the alternation between the Dative Construction (e.g. Sie sendet dir einen Brief) and the Prepositional Construction (e.g. Er sendet den Aufsatz an den Herausgeber) with ditransitive TRANSFERverbs (geben, senden, schicken etc.) in the history of ‘New High German’ (ca. 1650 until present). The focus is on (i) the changing frequencies and forms of the alternation and on (ii) the role of different factors that correlate with the alternation.