212 Timothy Colleman
We leave it for future research to further test this additional semantic pa-
rameter and its exact relation to the contiguity parameter. This could be
done by systematically comparing the assessments by Belgian and Nether-
landic speakers of ditransitive kopen ‘buy’ clauses with concrete vs. ab-
stract direct object referents and with absent vs. present indirect object ref-
erents, for instance. The next section presents another avenue for future
research.
- Register variation
A verb which has not been discussed in the previous section is bereiden
‘prepare’. Just like inschenken ‘pour’ and opscheppen ‘dish up, ladle out’,
this verb is used with ditransitive syntax in Netherlandic Dutch as well as in
Belgian Dutch, although examples such as (27) below violate the contiguity
constraint just like examples with ditransitive bakken ‘bake’, bestellen ‘or-
der’, bouwen ‘build’, etc. do. The preparation of a meal constitutes a
subevent which is clearly separate from the actual “transfer” of this meal to
its intended recipients.
(27) Ze had ons een heerlijke maaltijd bereid. (Haeseryn et al. 1997: 1165)
‘She had prepared us a delicious meal.’
Two comments are in order, however. First, it should be noted that not all
attested occurrences of ditransitive bereiden are genuine instances of the
benefactive ditransitive on a par with the construed example in (27). In
older phases of the language, bereiden was not only used as a verb of (food)
preparation, but also as a formal alternative to geven ‘give’ or verschaffen
‘provide’ (see the lemma bereiden in the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche
Taal [Dictionary of the Dutch language]). This older meaning has been
preserved in a number of idiomatic uses, such as iemand een warm(e) ont-
vangst/welkom bereiden ‘to give someone a warm welcome’, iemand een
verrassing bereiden ‘to spring a surprise on someone’ and iemand
genot/plezier bereiden ‘to give someone pleasure’, see the examples in (28).
(28) a. Groot-Brittannië wil af van zijn reputatie als een land dat asiel-
zoekers een warm welkom bereidt. [Het Parool 30/10/2001]
‘Great Britain wants to shed its reputation as a country which gives a
warm welcome to asylum seekers.’