Applicative structure and Mandarin ditransitives

We argue that applicative heads always appear above the lexical VP, regardless of the semantics of the construction. Thematic Applicatives select a nominal expression and a VP as argument, parallel to Pylkkänen’s (2008) “high” applicatives. The applied argument is merged in Spec, ApplP and receives a role such as beneficiary. Raising Applicatives appear in the same position above the lexical VP, but do not select an underlying nominal argument. Instead, they attract a goal DP from within the ditransitive VP to their specifier. This pattern captures the properties of a theme-goal ditransitive construction (Pylkkänen’s “low” applicative). We show that the Mandarin double object construction ‘Verb gei IO DO’ instantiates a raising applicative, where gei realizes Appl0.