Abstract
This usage-based study investigates the properties of the so-called ''ethical dative'' (ED) in conversational Czech and argues that its true nature cannot be fully understood without taking into account both its interactional properties and the grammatical constraints on its usage. The analysis shows that the production and reception of EDs in actual discourse involves conventional expectations about their form, meaning, and function, i.e. constructions in the sense of Construction Grammar.
The paper makes use of the multidimensional nature of grammatical constructions in representing the ED as a piece of conventional linguistic knowledge and demonstrates how the cognitive, interactional, and grammatical aspects of linguistic structure can be integrated in a single, formalizable representation - a constructional map.