ditransitive en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /ˌdaɪˈt͡ʃɹæn.zə.tɪv/
- /ˌdaɪˈtɹæn.zə.tɪv/
- (Southern-England) audio
Etymology
From di- + transitive.
Meanings
-
(not-comparable) 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).
The verb gave is sometimes called ditransitive: It can take two nouns following the verb, as in Lana gave the dog a stick. Here, the noun dog is the recipient of gave, and the object or patient of gave is the noun stick. The first post-verbal noun for ditransitive verbs is sometimes called its indirect object.
2025, Edward A. F. Gibson, “Dependency Grammar” (chapter 3), in Syntax: A Cognitive Approach, MIT Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 79: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.
1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 7, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 344:
Deriveds
ditransitively · ditransitivity
Hypernyms
Relateds
intransitive · ambitransitive · transitive
Synonyms
Translations (13)
fr bitransitif (having both a direct and indirect object — see also ditransitive verb) · pl dwuprzechodni (having both a direct and indirect object — see also ditransitive verb) · br daoudranzitivel (having both a direct and indirect object — see also ditransitive verb) · sv ditransitiv (having both a direct and indirect object — see also ditransitive verb) · ko 이중 타동사 (having both a direct and indirect object — see also ditransitive verb) · pl ditranzytywny (having both a direct and indirect object — see also ditransitive verb) · fi ditransitiivinen (having both a direct and indirect object — see also ditransitive verb) · ar مُتَعَدٍّ إِلَى مَفْعُولَينَ (having both a direct and indirect object — see also ditransitive verb) · fa دوگذرا (having both a direct and indirect object — see also ditransitive verb) · es ditransitivo (having both a direct and indirect object — see also ditransitive verb) · ka ორპირიანი (having both a direct and indirect object — see also ditransitive verb) · ru двуперехо́дный (having both a direct and indirect object — see also ditransitive verb) · el δίπτωτος (having both a direct and indirect object — see also ditransitive verb)