Dative constructions generally involve verbs of physical action, like 给 gěi ‘give to’, 递 dì ‘hand to’, 交 jiāo ‘hand to’/‘submit to’, 还 huán ‘return to’, etc. However, verbs like 告诉 gàosu ‘tell’, 通知 tōng zhī ‘inform’/‘notify’, 教 jiāo ‘teach’ and 叫 jiào ‘call’/‘address as’, all of which involve some form of communication, can also form dative sentences:
我朋友告诉我一个秘密。
Wǒ péng yǒu gào sù wǒ yī gè mì mì 。
(秘密 mì mì direct object, 我 wǒ indirect object)
My friend told me a secret.
秘书通知他一件事。
Mì shū tōng zhī tā yī jiàn shì 。
(一件事 yī jiàn shì direct object, 他 tā indirect object)
The secretary notified him about something.
她教她女儿英语。
Tā jiāo tā nǚ ér yīng yǔ 。
(英语 yīng yǔ direct object, 她女儿 tā nǚ ér indirect object)
She taught her daughter English.
大家叫我老王。
Dà jiā jiào wǒ lǎo wáng 。
(老王 lǎo wáng direct object, 我 wǒ indirect object)
Everybody calls me Lao Wang.
[1] Yip, P. C., Rimmington, D., Xiaoming, Z., & Henson, R. (2009). Basic Chinese: a grammar and workbook. Taylor & Francis.
