Culture, cognition, and the grammar of 'give' clauses

This chapter explores the extent to which the structure of 'give' clauses may be motivated by cultural and cognitive factors. It identifies three categories of the 'give' phenomena which are discussed in turn: (a) aspects of 'give' clause structure which are determined by a broad cognitive principle and have substantial cross-linguistic and cross-cultural variety; (b) aspects of 'give' clause structure which reflect an orientation or perspective but with significance in a larger culture and are culture- and language-specific; (c) and aspects of 'give' clause structure which have a special significance within a particular language system, but do not reflect larger cultural, non-linguistic values.