Benefactive ditransitives in Dutch 197(a plate)’ and in formal language also (een maaltijd) bereiden ‘prepare (a
meal)’, see (6) for construed examples from the literature.
(6) a. De ober heeft Piet een kop koffie ingeschonken
(Schermer-Vermeer 1991: 219)
‘The waiter has poured Pete a cup of coffee.’
b. Zal ik jou eens een lekker bord boerenkool opscheppen?
(Schermer-Vermeer 1991: 219)
‘Shall I dish you up a tasty plate of borecole?’
c. Ze had ons een heerlijke maaltijd bereid.
(Haeseryn et al. 1997: 1165)
‘She had prepared us a delicious meal.’
In view of this, Verhagen (2002) correctly observes that standard Dutch
does not have a productive benefactive ditransitive construction and marks
the example in (7) as ungrammatical.
(7) *Jan maakte haar een boterham. (Verhagen 2002: 415)
‘John made her a sandwich.’
Some comments are in order, however. First, it should be observed that in
earlier phases of the language, the benefactive ditransitive was not at all
limited to a handful of verbs of food provision or preparation of the kind
illustrated in (6) above, but could be combined productively with all kinds
of verbs to encode various subtypes of benefactive events. (8) lists a small
number of attested examples from various periods. More examples can be
found fairly easily by browsing the citations in the Middelnederlandsch
Woordenboek [Middle Dutch Dictionary] (Verwijs and Verdam 1885-1952)
and the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal [Dictionary of the Dutch
language] (De Vries, Te Winkel et al. 1882-1998).^3
(8) a. Daer cochte Joseph sinen here den vijften scoof vander vrucht.
(c. 1300, Maerlant, Rhimed Bible)
‘There Joseph bought his lord the fifth part of the harvest.’
b. Wat ic huer doe kin canse niet ghepaeyen.
(16th C, anonymous ballade)
‘Whatever I do for her, I cannot content her.’