An Empirical and Theoretical Study of Variations of the Double Object Construction in English-Speaking Countries

我在新西兰、加拿大、新加坡、澳大利亚和美国进行了两类关于双物建构的调查。一种是关于间接和直接宾语的钝化，另一种是关于在两个宾语之间放置状语的可能性。调查结果显示了以下几点。首先，各国的间接宾语无一例外地具有定语性质，而直接宾语则具有定语性质而非定语性质。其次，间接被动语态受到高度评价，但直接被动语态在所有国家都被认为是异常或不合语法的，尽管根据所涉及的与格动词的选择有差异。第三，状语出现在间接宾语和直接宾语之间的位置更受青睐，强烈暗示直接宾语是形容词。在这三点上，虽然五国之间没有明显的差异，但新加坡值得特别注意。大约90%的新加坡人更喜欢状语位于间接宾语和直接宾语之间，这一比例与其他国家相比是非常高的，这一结果应该在未来的研究中进行分析。

I have conducted two sorts of surveys on the double object construction in New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, Australia and the United States. One is concerned with passivization of the indirect and direct object, and the other with the possibility of placing an adverbial between the two objects. The results of the surveys show the following points. First, the indirect object invariably has properties as arguments, whereas the direct object has properties as adjuncts rather than arguments in all the countries. Second, the indirect passive is highly evaluated, but the direct passive is judged anomalous or ungrammatical in all the countries, though there are variations depending on choice of dative verbs involved. Third, adverbials are more favored when they appear in the position between the indirect object and the direct object, strongly suggesting that the direct object is adjunct. Although there are no noticeable differences among the five countries regarding the three points made here, Singapore deserves special attention. About 90% of Singaporean speakers, a very high percentage compared with the other countries, prefer adverbials to be in the position between the indirect object and direct object, a result that should be analyzed in a future study.