Dative constructions in the Nordic languages (in moderation, awaiting OP response)

[Arath]

I know that most Scandinavian languages have lost the dative case. What is it substituted by? Bulgarian has also lost the dative case but it is substituted by a prepositional construction, so the direct object and the indirect object are always distinct. In English they are often merged:

I gave John a book.

In this example the direct object (a book) and the indirect object (John) are indistinguishable. They are treated the same. But we can also introduce the indirect object using the preposition "TO":

I gave a book to John.

Sometimes this is obligatory:

I gave it to him.

How is it in the Nordic languages? Are the direct (accusative) and indirect (dative) objects distinct or merged? If they are merged, can they be distinguished sometimes, like in English?

 

[hanne]

Can we assume that you're only asking about Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, which have lost the dative, and not e.g. Icelandic which still has it? (Just making sure what the title should be changed to, cf. the forum guidelines.)

It's the same as in English all the way through, as far as I can tell. We can even go one step further and say "I gave John it", which you can't in English. I wouldn't call them indistinguishable though - they're distinguished by word order.

 

[Arath]

Well, I know that some dialects of Norwegian and Swedish still use the Dative case (at least according to Wikipedia). And for all I know there may be some syncretism between accusative and dative constructions in Icelandic, so I wouldn't exclude it from my question. I'd still like to know how things are in Icelandic.

So, a little furter enquiry. Are they distinguised by word order or by context? I'm struggling to find a suitable example. Let's settle for this:

I gave the door a little push.

and

I gave the push a little door (Sorry, I know this doesn't make much sense)

Is it enough to swap them to change the meaning or does it still remain the same because of the context?

 

[NoMoreMrIceGuy]

Well, I know that some dialects of Norwegian and Swedish still use the Dative case (at least according to Wikipedia). And for all I know there may be some syncretism between accusative and dative constructions in Icelandic, so I wouldn't exclude it from my question. I'd still like to know how things are in Icelandic.

So, a little furter enquiry. Are they distinguised by word order or by context? I'm struggling to find a suitable example. Let's settle for this:

I gave the door a little push.

and

I gave the push a little door (Sorry, I know this doesn't make much sense)

Is it enough to swap them to change the meaning or does it still remain the same because of the context?

Since push doesn't exist as a noun in Icelandic I'll take the liberty to change the sentence a bit. I also took the liberty to remove the definite article so you could see the distinction clearer.

I gave a horse a little pat.
Ég gaf hesti lítið klapp.
I gave a pat a little horse.
Ég gaf klappi lítinn hest.