English

Adjective

ditransitive ‎(not comparable)

1. (linguistics) Of a class of verbs which take both a direct and an indirect object. An example is 'give', which entails a giver (subject), a gift (direct object) and a receiver (indirect object).
   • 1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 7, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 344:

     So far, we have considered only transitive Verbs which take a single NP Complement. However, there are a subset of transitive Verbs (known as ditransitive Verbs) which can take two NP Complements, as illustrated in (16) below (where the NP Complements are bracketed):
     (16) (a)      John gave [Mary] [a present]
     (16) (b)      The postman handed [me] [a parcel]
     (16) (c)      He showed [her] [his credentials]
     (16) (d)      He sent [his mother] [some flowers]
     (16) (e)      Never promise [anyone] [anything]
     The relevant subcategorisation frame for Verbs used in this construction will be [— NP NP], indicating that they can take two NP Complements.

Translations

Derived terms

• ditransitivity

Related terms

• ambitransitive
• intransitive
• transitive

Noun

ditransitive ‎(plural ditransitives)

1. (linguistics) A verb that takes both an object and an indirect object.