Nabljudenija varxu sintaksisa na datelnija padezh v istorijata na balgarskija ezik/Notes on the history of the dative case in Bulgarian

The paper offers several generalizations about the syntax and semantics of the possessive clitic in contemporary Bulgarian. The paper discusses some of the tendencies in the evolution of the possessive dative that led to the syncretism with the genitive case in the hsitory of Bulgarian and the subsequent establishment of the dative as possessive case. It is argued that at sentence level the dative is an inherent case, while the noun phrase internal dative is a structural case and is underlyingly genitive (possessive). Case syncretism is therefore formal, not featural