dative
C2Academic, Technical
Definition
Meaning
A grammatical case indicating the recipient or beneficiary of an action, often corresponding to the indirect object.
In linguistics, the case marking a noun or pronoun as the recipient of a verb's action; more broadly, referring to anything pertaining to or having the nature of giving.
Linguistics
Semantic Notes
In English grammar, the term is used descriptively for the syntactic role of an indirect object (e.g., 'I gave *her* the book'), though modern English does not have a distinct morphological case for this, unlike languages such as German, Latin, or Russian. In historical linguistics, it refers to the case form in languages that have it.
Dialectal Variation
British vs American Usage
Differences
No significant difference in meaning or use. Both varieties use the term exclusively in grammatical/linguistic contexts.
Connotations
Highly technical, associated with formal grammar study or linguistics.
Frequency
Extremely low frequency in general discourse. Slightly higher frequency in academic publishing in the UK due to the historical study of Latin in some educational traditions, but this difference is negligible.
Vocabulary
Collocations
Grammar
Valency Patterns
[Subject] + [Verb] + [Indirect Object (dative role)] + [Direct Object][Subject] + [Verb] + [Direct Object] + to/for + [Indirect Object (dative role)]Vocabulary
Synonyms
Neutral
Weak
Vocabulary
Antonyms
Usage
Context Usage
Business
Not used.
Academic
Used in linguistics, classical studies, and grammar textbooks to describe case systems.
Everyday
Virtually never used.
Technical
Core term in syntactic theory, typology, and language description.
Examples
By Part of Speech
adjective
British English
- The Old English pronoun system had distinct dative forms.
- This is a classic example of a dative shift alternation.
American English
- The dative construction is less common in that language.
- We need to analyse the verb's dative argument.
Examples
By CEFR Level
- In German, 'mir' is the dative form of the pronoun 'ich'.
- The sentence 'She sent me a letter' uses 'me' as an indirect object, which is a dative function.
- The linguist argued that the ethical dative in that dialect had developed a new pragmatic function.
- Not all languages that permit the double-object construction analyse the first object as a syntactic dative.
Learning
Memory Aids
Mnemonic
Think 'DATive' as in 'to DAtive' or 'to give TO someone'. The recipient gets a DATE with the action.
Conceptual Metaphor
GRAMMAR IS SPACE (The dative is a 'direction' or 'goal' to which something is transferred).
Watch out
Common Pitfalls
Translation Traps (for Russian speakers)
- Do not confuse the English grammatical *term* 'dative' with the Russian morphological *case* 'дательный падеж'. In English, you say 'I gave *her* the book' – 'her' is in the dative *role*, but it's an object pronoun, not a special case form.
- The English prepositional phrase with 'to' often fulfills the dative function ('I gave the book to her'), which corresponds to the Russian dative case without a preposition.
Common Mistakes
- Pronouncing it as /dæˈtiːv/ or /ˈdɑːtɪv/.
- Using it to describe everyday indirect objects in casual English instruction (e.g., telling a beginner 'her' is in the dative case).
- Confusing it with the 'accusative' or 'objective' case in English pronouns.
Practice
Quiz
In which of these sentences is the word 'him' serving a dative (indirect object) role?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
No, modern English does not have a distinct morphological dative case. Pronouns like 'me', 'him', 'her', 'us', 'them' serve as both accusative and dative objects. The *function* of the dative (indirect object) is expressed through word order or prepositional phrases with 'to' or 'for'.
Dative shift is a syntactic alternation where a verb that can take a direct object and a prepositional phrase (e.g., 'give the book to Mary') can also appear with two objects ('give Mary the book'). The indirect object 'Mary' is said to have been 'shifted'.
Typically, the accusative case marks the direct object (the entity directly acted upon), while the dative case marks the indirect object (the recipient or beneficiary of the action). In 'She gave the teacher the apple', 'the apple' is accusative (direct object), 'the teacher' is dative (indirect object).
Almost never. It is a specialised grammatical term. In everyday teaching, terms like 'indirect object' are used instead. Using 'dative' in casual talk would likely confuse the listener unless they have a background in linguistics or language learning.