Verbs of transfer (give, lend) and intended transfer (buy, get)
Types: I gave her a present I got her a present
This is the basic ditransitive pattern. Three-place verbs like give have a subject and two Objects, representing the transfer of goods or information from one person to another. They also include speech act verbs such as ‘offer’ and ‘promise’. Here are some more verbs like give:
He showed the policeman his driving licence. (He showed his driving licence to the policeman.)
We are offering our clients a unique opportunity. ( . . . to our clients)
She owes several people large sums of money. ( . . . to several people)
As the examples show, the indirect Object has a prepositional counterpart, the give type with to, the get type with for (I gave a present to her. I got/bought a present for her). The PP functions as a prepositional Complement.
Verbs of intended transfer carry out a service for someone, or even a disservice, as in They set him a trap/They set a trap for him. Other verbs like get and buy include the following:
Book me a sleeper on the night train. ( . . . a sleeper for me)
Will you call me a taxi, please? ( . . . a taxi for me)
Paul got us a very good discount. ( . . . a good discount for us)
With the ‘give’ type, two passives are usually possible:
Active: I gave Jo a copy.
Passive 1: Jo was given a copy. (Oi in active clause → S in passive clause)
Passive 2: A copy was given to Jo. (Od in active clause → S in passive clause)
?A copy was given Jo. (? Indicates divided acceptability)
The ‘first passive’ brings the Recipient participant to subject (Jo). The ‘second passive’ brings the thing given to subject, followed by the Recipient as prepositional Complement (to Jo). The non-prepositional form A copy was given Jo, is considered ungrammatical by many speakers, but is accepted by others. Two orderings whose equivalents are acceptable in certain languages but which are ungrammatical in English are the following: *To Jo was given a copy and *To Jo it was given a copy.
The difference between the two valid passive forms is a question of information packaging. They are useful alternatives when the active subject is not known or is not important in the discourse.
