Differential Recipient Marking in the Bangla GIVE Construction

This study investigates differential recipient marking (DRM) in Bangla ditransitive constructions employing the verb ‘give’. Bangla DRM exhibits a split-fluid system, where animate recipients receive dative marking, while inanimate recipients alternate between dative and locative marking. Based on both quantitative and qualitative analyses, this paper argues that Bangla DRM primarily serves an identifying function in which the extended animacy hierarchy and event semantics play a central role as determining factors. An inanimate recipient receives dative marking when higher on the extended animacy hierarchy or when the event is conceptualized as caused possession. Conversely, it receives locative marking when lower on the hierarchy or when the event semantics deviates from caused possession. These findings highlight the gradience of the inanimate category in Bangla, reflecting how speakers conceptualize events and referents of arguments.