Less prototypical but common three-place verbs
There is a good deal of variation in ditransitive verbs. Here are a few of the most common variants:
Type: explain + Od+ Prepositional Complement – He explained the problem to us
Typical verbs are: announce, confess, deliver, mention, return and say. There is no corresponding structure with the Oi in its usual place: *He explained us the problem. That is, these verbs take only the prepositional Complement after the Od.
Did she say hello to you? * Did she say you hello?
I never mentioned her name to anyone. * Mention no-one her name.
Type: deliver + Od + Goal complement – They’ll deliver the pizza to your house this evening.
There is no non-prepositional counterpart of a Goal Complement *They’ll deliver you/ your house the pizza.
Type: wish + Oi + Od – We wish you luck
Other verbs: allow, cost, wish, refuse and ‘light’ uses of give.
Conversely, these verbs have no prepositional counterpart with to. Note that the starred counter- parts on the right are ungrammatical. Ask something of someone is possible, however, as in I must ask a favor of you.
They allow everyone a ten-minute break. *They allow a ten-minute break to everyone.
He gave the door a push. *He gave a push to the door.
Let’s ask someone the way. *Let’s ask the way to someone.
Many three-place verbs allow valency reduction from 3 to 2 when there is contextual support, as in He called a taxi, he got a discount, they blamed me, let’s ask the way.
