Differential Case Marking

    A(gent)s tend to be more animate and definite, and to be 1st/2nd person rather than 3rd person. P(atients) are the opposite. Usually an agent of a transitive event is presented as a subject w/ nominative case mark in a clause, and the agent is frequently a human-being, very specific person, like I or you. On the contrary, the object of a clause is frequently non-human, a thing, an event, etc. Just try to think of your daily conversation.

     An agent that is animate and definite, and is a 1st/2nd person is very normal, and so is an patient that is inanimate, indefinite, and 3rd person. 

     So when the more opposite the case is, the more the agent or the object tends to have a special case mark: it is called 'differential case marking'. For example, the subject of Korean psych-verbs has special case, the dative '-eygey' (it sounds [ege], writes -에게); the most common subject case mark is the nominative '-i/-ga'

     na-eygey-n suhak-i swuip-Ø-da (나에겐 수학이 쉽다; Math is easy for me to study)

     1sg-Dative-Contrastive math-Nominative Easy-Present-Indicative

     (To me, math, easy, is)

     As of the relation between A and P, R and T of a ditransitive construction respectively has the same tendencies along the scales. 

     So it is almost impossible that the R to be inanimate in Korean with the basic transfer verb 'cu-' [chu-] (to give): a few exceptional constructions are to give water or  fertilizer to a plant, to give a stress on a word (loaned construction from English), to give a point to s/th (also an English translation style), etc.

     *kemphywute-ey bailesugemsa-lul cwu-ela (*컴퓨터에 바이러스검사를 주어라)

     computer-Dative virus scanning-Accusative give-imperative

     Give your computer a virus scan