Double accusative constructions and ditransitives in Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek features a number of syntactically and semantically different double accusative constructions. In part, they occur with ditransitive maleficiary verbs. Most of these verbs allow for construction variation in connection with different types of Rarguments (maleficiary in neutral alignment vs. beneficiary in indirect alignment). Based on behavioral properties of the constructions discussed, we show that some other verbs share the behavior of maleficiary ditransitives, notably verbs of asking, requesting and ordering. We argue that both addressees of such verbs and part of the maleficiaries can be conceptualized as sources, thus providing a link between them. Causative verbs that take double accusative constructions do not share the behavioral properties of maleficiary verbs with neutral alignment, due to the connection of causativity with verbal voice.