Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 6j) The sentence in the sentence John sent a message to Mary is traditionally
called the dative construction. The main verb send is in the V head and assigns a theme
thematic role to the DP a message in the specifier of the VP and a goal thematic role to
its complement PP. The vP is an extended projection of the VP, so the main verb
assigns an agent thematic role indirectly via the v to the DP in the specifier of the vP.
The DP Mary receives accusative Case from the preposition to while the DP a
message gets its accusative Case from the v head. Since the light verb is a bound
morpheme, the main verb adjoins to the v head and then moves on to the tense v and I
to agree with the subject. The DP in the specifier of the vP needs to be assigned Case
as well, so it has to move to the specifier of the IP.
(10) CP
C'
C IP
DP 1 I'
John I vP
sent2+3 v'
v vP
t 2 +t 3 t 1 v'
v VP
t 2 DP V'
a messageV PP
t 2 to Mary
k) The sentence Mary was sent a message is a passive sentence with the so
called double object construction. The main verb is in V in the D-structure. The theme
argument a message occupies the specifier of the VP, the agent DP is absent in passive
structures, the vP hosting the agentive DP is replaced by the passive vP. The third
argument DP is in the complement position of the main verb and it is assigned a goal
thematic role by the verb. The DP a message receives accusative Case in its base
position, so it does not have to move. The DP Mary, however, needs to move to a Case
position. First it moves to the specifier of the lower vP, which is the position for DPs
with a goal thematic role in double-object constructions. In an active sentence, the DP
Mary can stop in this position, since it can receive Case here as it can be attested in the
sentence in (11).
(11) John sent Mary a message.