Datapoint Bislama/Ditransitive constructions with ‘give’

Note that often one or the other of the object arguments is null (recoverable from the immediately preceding clause). Corpus work is needed to establish relative frequencies. The double object construction is maybe not a strong possibility with two full NPs.

Values

Indirect-object construction Frequency: 70.0%

Example 23-101:
bambae Aron i givim mane long mi
bambae
irr
Aron
Aaron
i
agr
givim
give
mane
money
long
all
mi
1sg
Aaron will give money to me.

Source: Meyerhoff nd

Example 23-103:
i givim kosin fi long mi
i
agr
givim
give
kosin
caution
fi
fee
long
all
mi
1sg
She gave me my security deposit.

Source: Meyerhoff nd

Confidence:
Very certain

Double-object construction Frequency: 30.0%

Example 23-102:
hem i givim mi ol ting olsem mane wetem wan pis kaliko
hem
3sg
i
agr
givim
give
mi
1sg
ol
pl
ting
thing
olsem
like
mane
money
wetem
with
wan
indf
pis
piece
kaliko
cloth
He gave me things, like money and a piece of cloth.

Source: Meyerhoff nd

Example 23-104:
bae yu givim hem sam mo mane?
bae
irr
yu
2sg
givim
give
hem
3sg
sam
some
mo
more
mane?
money
Would you have given him some more money?

Source: Meyerhoff nd

Confidence:
Very certain