Testing for StructureRestricting ourselves to the discussion of the standard dialect, we find the two
objects also differ in terms of passive movement. Only the indirect object can undergo
this movement:
(73) a Larry was lent a lasso
b * a lasso was lent Larry
The direct object can only undergo passive movement if the goal argument is
expressed as a PP, in what is often called the dative alternate or the dative
construction:
(74) a Lucy lent a lasso to Larry
b a lasso was lent to Larry
The notions of subject, direct object and indirect object are known as grammatical
functions. It is fairly clear that they are defined as positions in the English sentence, in
that any element which sits in those positions will be interpreted as subject and object
respectively, no matter if this makes sense or not:
(75) a Eddy ate his dinner
b ?his dinner ate Eddy
The fact that people eat dinners and that dinners do not usually eat people is irrelevant
as far as the interpretation of these sentences is concerned. What is important is which
position each argument occupies and hence which grammatical function each
argument has, and this alone is what determines how to interpret the sentence.
3 Testing for Structure
3.1 Substitution
In the previous sections we have presented the sentence as structured into a subject DP
followed by a VP, and the VP as structured into the verb and its complements:
(76) S
DP VP
the bull worried DP
the china-shop owner
We developed this structure by noting certain distributional patterns, such as the
subject the bull could be replaced by the pronoun it and the VP worried the china-shop
owner could be replaced by the verb charged:
(77) it charged
As we claimed, the distribution of an element shows us that it has a certain status in
the sentence and all elements which have the same distribution will have the same
status. This is why we could use observations about distribution to demonstrate the
structure of the sentence: the fact that the bull has the same distribution as it shows that