Benefactive applicative periphrases

After defining applicative periphrases as constructions in which a verb (the verb-operator) acts as a valency operator licensing the expression of an additional participant fulfilling a given semantic role in the event encoded by another verb (the lexical verb), this paper analyses applicative periphrases licensing beneficiaries. I recognize three formal types with respect to the grammatical nature of the two verb forms involved in the periphrasis and examine their distribution in the languages of the world. I then discuss grammaticalization paths leading to benefactive applicative periphrases, as well as further evolutions of benefactive applicative periphrases. The last two sections are devoted to autobenefactive applicative periphrases and to the use of verbs other than ‘give’ as verb-operator in benefactive applicative periphrases.