Postponement with ditransitive verbs
We saw that certain ditransitive verbs – such as give, deny, grant, lend, owe, show among others – allow two alternative structures:
We’ve given the children bicycles. (SPOiOd)
We’ve given bicycles to the children. (SPOdPC)
This alternative allows us to place end-focus either on the Recipient (the children) or on the other participant, without using the passive. This way of adjusting the clause, to get the end-focus where we want it, is especially useful when one of the participants is Given information, often realized by a pronoun; this will normally be placed in medial position:
We’ve given them bicycles.
We’ve given them to the children.
N.B. With certain verbs such as deliver which take a Goal Complement only the prepositional version is valid:
They’ll deliver the pizza to your house.
