To have, or maybe not: on the distribution and interpretation of ditransitives in Icelandic and Faroese

Drawing on novel data collected from 216 speakers (108 speakers of Icelandic and Faroese, respectively), we provide a micro comparative examination of the distribution and interpretation of double object (DO) and prepositional (PP) ditransitives in Insular Scandinavian. Overall, PPs are more acceptable in both Icelandic and Faroese than has been previously reported, with a substantial amount of variation in Icelandic. Even though verbal semantics interacts with PPs more so in Icelandic than in Faroese, different verbs in the same semantic class pattern differently in both languages, complexifying claims that have been made about the semantic restrictions on PPs (Þráinsson, Höskuldur. Syntax of Icelandic. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007 and Þráinsson, Höskuldur et al. Faroese: An Overview and Reference Grammar. Føroya Frόðskaparfelag, Tόrshavn, 2004). Furthermore, our findings suggest that ditransitive verbs in Insular Scandinavian do not entail successful transfer of possession, irrespective of verb class. This is counter to claims that have been made for English, for which ‘give’-type verbs are argued to entail successful transfer (e.g., Rappaport Hovav and Levin in J Linguist 44(1):129–167, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226707004975; Beavers in J Semant 28(1):1–54, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1093/jos/ffq014; Bruening in Nat Lang Linguist Theory 39:1023–1085, 2021).