Dative as Semantic Structural Case

Contrary to the popular view that dative is idiosyncratic to verbs or particular theta roles, the distribution of dative is predictable from the distribution of other cases like nominative, accusative, instrumental, etc. That is, dative behaves like an unmarked or elsewhere choice for Non-Actor/Non-Patient (＝NANP) roles. This paper develops a theory of semantic structural case under the framework of conceptual semantics (Jackendoff 1983, 1990, 1997, 2002). In my proposed analysis, dative is structurally mapped onto NANP entities in the conceptual structure. Important consequences about other peripheral roles are discussed in section 5.