Direct and secondary object ditransitive structures in Old Romanian

Abstract

In the present article we investigate the ditransitive syntactic construction involving a [+animate] direct object and a [–animate] secondary object. The configuration, which was inherited from Latin, distinguishes Romanian from the other Romance languages, in which the corresponding pattern involves an indirect and a direct object. In Old Romanian, the pattern is well represented, being encountered in all types of texts. The configuration is examined in the following areas: the verbs that allow for it; the realizations of the secondary object; its particularities in Old Romanian texts.