ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the structures of the benefactive construction, with the main focus on te-moraw benefactives. Based on the data suggesting the syntactic parallelism between the passives and the te-moraw benefactives, we propose that they in fact share essentially the same derivation and the same syntactic structures. In particular, the te-moraw benefactives seem to fit into the three types posited for the passive: direct, possessive, and indirect. The contrast in reflexive binding also follows from the fact that the agent phrase in the direct/possessive benefactives is syntactically suppressed, hence does not qualify as a reflexive binder. The case marker alternation and the omissibility of the agent phrase of the direct/possessive benefactives reflect the syntactic suppression of the agent phrase. The parallelism is further confirmed by their behavior with respect to reflexive binding, the optionality of the ni-phrase, and Subject Honorification.
