ABSTRACT
Instead of a case-form for the indirect object we often find a preposition, which loses its original local meaning, thus E. to, Romanic a. This originally indicated direction and would be appropriately used with such verbs as give, but its use was extended to cases in which any idea of direction would be out of the question, e.g. with deny. In Spanish a is used even with the direct object, if this denotes a person. In Ellglish the preposition on is sometimes used idiomatically: bestow something on a person, confer a degree on him.
