Alternating constructions with mitto 'send': the encoding of third arguments

Some Latin ditransitive verbs of physical transfer (e.g. dō ‘give’, mittō ‘send’) feature construction alternation: animate third arguments (i.e. recipient-like arguments) can be expressed either by the dative case or by an allative prepositional phrase with ad and the accusative. This paper investigates argument structure and alternations of the Latin verb mittō ‘send’, focusing on the encodings of recipient-like arguments, with a corpus-based approach. My analysis of a sample of ditransitive constructions shows that construction alternation of mittō ‘send’ can be motivated by considering variables taken into account in typologically-oriented studies. I argue that the distribution of the encodings of recipient-like arguments can be related to: (i) animacy of theme arguments; (ii) semantic roles of third arguments (e.g. animate directions vs. concrete recipients); (iii) degree of affectedness of third arguments.