The Grammar of Gift-Giving

What do we mean when we say that the verb "give" is a three-argument verb? Well, this just means that in order for the verb to function properly, three roles must be satisfied: the giver, the recipient, and the thing being given. Therefore, phrases like "I gave" or "I gave to you" are incomplete sentences because the verb requires all three arguments to be complete. There are two basic forms that the verb "give" takes. The first form, which is called the "double-object construction," would be "I gave you a gift." The second form, which we refer to as the "prepositional dative," would be "I gave a gift to you."

As you can see, although the messages conveyed by these two sentences might be quite similar, the sentences are just not the same. English relies heavily on word order to indicate parts of speech, as opposed to using case endings like Latin, and the parts of a sentence placed closest to the verb are considered to be most directly involved with the action. In "I gave you a gift," the recipient ("you") is after the verb, and thus, the recipient is the primary object of the sentence. The act of gift giving is directed specifically at the recipient. On the other hand, in "I gave a gift to you," the thing being given becomes the primary focus of the action while the recipient is introduced with a prepositional phrase. This makes the actual transfer of the object the primary focus of the action rather than the person receiving the object. In Latin, this situation is represented differently from English. In the Latin sentence "donum tibi do," the ending of the recipient, "tibi," signals that it's in the dative case. In English, however, the lack of a case system forces us to use syntax for displaying the structural emphasis of the sentence.

I think it's worth remembering this when handing someone a present.