Comments on Lexical Analysis

The difference between (la) and (Ib) is usually regarded as syntactic, (Ib) deriving from the structure underlying (la) as a consequence of a dative-movement transformation that inverts the order of the direct and indirect objects and deletes "to". Some people, however, detect a difference in meaning: "She handed her hat to him," they say, merely suggests that he took it, whereas "She handed him her hat" asserts that he took it -the sense expressed in (2). If one respects this difference in meaning, and also holds to the semantic neutrality of such grammatical transformations as dative movement, then presumably one must distinguish two different meanings of "hand" -one resembling 'offer" and another offer-and-take." If one does not respect this meaning difference, both (la) and (Ib) have the "offer-and-take" sense. In either case, it is the sense paraphrased in (2) that will be considered here.