Abstract
This usage-based study investigates the properties of a subset of the so-called 'ethical datives' (ED) as manifested in conversational Czech. On the basis of qualitative and some frequency-based quantitative evidence from the Czech National Corpus, I argue for a 'holistic' approach to their shifting categorial affiliation.
A close analysis of naturally occurring discourse material leads to a proposal that each type of usage represents a multidimensional piece of conventional linguistic knowledge - a grammatical construction. The proposal demonstrates how the cognitive, interactional, and grammatical aspects of linguistic structure can be integrated in a single, formalizable representation, manifested as potentially distinct grammatical categories.