Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

that *bi-√ prefix verbs are generally transitive and involve both a direct object and an
indirect object. Likewise, the fact that all of the members of the BNBV inal class involve a
change of state indicates that Pylkkänen’s second diagnostic is satisfied as well.
One the most well-known semantic effects of the constructions such as (12) and the
corresponding form in Japanese (gapped adversity passives) is that the event described by
the predicate affects the dative possessor in a negative way: this clearly results from the
source argument implicit in low applicative constructions and is apparent in examples of
the BNBV inal class (Pylkkänen 2002, 23; on Japanese gapped adversity passives and their
similarity to (12), see Kubo 1992 and Pylkkänen 2002, 59-68). One the best examples of
the role of privation in low source applicatives is the meaning that Landau has attributed
to possessor dative constructions in Hebrew (1999) and Pylkkänen critical response to
Landau’s initial proposal (Pylkkänen 2002, 43-49).
Landau begins with a discussion of a raised possessor construction in Modern
Hebrew in which the possessor is preceded by a dative preposition, while the possessed
noun is unmarked except for case as in the following example (Borer and Grodzinsky,
1986, ex. 12a; Landau 1999, 3, ex. 3).
(23) ha-yalda kilkela le-Dan et ha-radio
the-girl spoiled to-Dan Acc the-radio
The girl broke Dan’s radio
51