Dative arguments

The point is to be aware that Spanish relies on a highly productive process called
‘incorporation of dative arguments’, which doesn´t exist in English. This device allows
speakers to add an affected participant to an event expressed originally by an intransitive or
transitive verb thereby speakers maintain the basic meaning of the verb while enriching it in
different but similar ways. So, it is a cute way to keep the basic meaning of a word while
expanding it, that is, we describe with one word different but related meanings.
For example, let’s take the verb in (1):

(1) a. Sobró un libro.

b. A Pedro le sobró un libro.

The simplest form of the verb is ‘a’. The verb denotes a state and it has a single argument
‘un libro’. It is hard to express the same content in English, probably one would say ‘One
book is left over’. Now, this state is enriched by the addition of a dative argument in ‘b’.
The reading that inserts this argument into the ‘sobrar’ event is vague: it could be that
Pedro is the owner the book and he was selling them or it might be that he was putting them
on a shelf and there is one book that doesn’t fit in it, and so on. Presumably, in this case we
would say ‘Pedro was one book short from putting all of them in the shelf’.

(2) a. La sangre corre por las venas.

b. A Pedro le corrió sangre por las venas.

Here we have an activity ‘correr’ that is realized in an intransitive verb and then we add in
‘b’ a participant that is the owner, so to speak, of the veins.

The list includes stative as well as dynamic verbs such as

faltar ‘lack’ "

crecer ‘grow’ "
romperse ‘break’ "
llegar ‘arrive’ $"
salir ‘go out’ "
salirse ‘come off’ "
caer ‘fall’, $
caerse ‘fall down’, "
molestar ‘bother’, $
quedar ‘remain’, "
sobrar ‘be-extra’, "
importar ‘matter’, $
doler ‘hurt’, $$$""""
alcanzar ‘reach’,
corrió,
etc.

(2) Al libro le faltan las tapas the book.

DAT CL.DAT lack.PL the covers ‘The book has no covers/ is missing its covers’

(3) A los chicos les creció rápido

el pelo the kids.DAT CL.DAT grew.SG quickly the hair ‘The kids’ hair grew quickly’
(4) A Vera se le rompió el televisor
Vera.DAT CL.REF CL.DAT broke.SG the TV.NOM ‘The TV broke on Vera’

English uses an entirely different way to expand the meaning of one verb into a set of
related but different meanings: phrasal verbs.

call for: I call for action against the government.

There is little call for type writers these days.

call on: to visit someone for a short time

call in (hacer pasar a) We had to CALL IN a plumber because the sink was leaking
and I had no idea how to fix it.

call off: cancel : the concert has to be called off because of the rain.

call out: llamar en auxilio para que alguien salga auxiliary a alguien.

The governor called out the police to disperse the protestors.

call up: The army called up the reserve soldiers when the war broke out.

call back: I’ll call you back.

call away: The doctor was called away.

Another example:

Carry out: (perform a task) I`m currently carrying out experiments on neurolinguistics.

Carry off: (win) She CARRIED OFF the first prize in the competition.

Carry on. (continue) CARRY ON quietly with your work until the substitute teacher
arrives.

Carry over (continue past certain point) The meeting was carried over.