PR–T: The patient of a monotransitive verb and the recipient of a ditransitive verb are marked the same way; the theme of a ditransitive verb is marked differently.

PT–R: The objects of monotransitive and ditransitive verbs are marked the same way; the recipient is marked differently.

VAgrPTnoR: The verb codes agreement with P and T the same way; agreement with R is not coded.

VAgrPRnoT: The verb codes agreement with P and R the same way; agreement with T is not coded.

(1) āŋki lɔ̄pka-nə ńāń wə-ʌ. āŋki ńēwrem-əʌ ťūt-at mə-ʌ.

mother shop-loc bread buy-prs.3sg mother child-3sg that-ins give-prs.3sg

‘The woman is buying bread in the shop. The woman is giving that to her child.’ (L. N. K.)

(2a) āŋki lɔ̄pka-nə ńāń wə-ʌ. āŋki ńēwrem-a ťūt mə-ʌ.

mother shop-loc bread buy-prs.3sg mother child-lat that give-prs.3sg

‘The woman is buying bread in the shop. The woman is giving that to her child.’ (L. N. K.)

(2b) āŋki lɔ̄pka-nə ńāń wə-ʌ. āŋki ńēwrem-a mə-ʌ-təɣ.

mother shop-loc bread buy-prs.3sg mother child-lat give-prs-obj.3sg

‘The woman is buying bread in the shop. The woman is giving that to her child.’ (L. N. K.)

(3) āŋki lɔ̄pka-nə ńāń wə-ʌ. āŋki-nə ńēwrem ťūt-at mə-ʌ-i.

mother shop-loc bread buy-prs.3sg mother-loc child that-ins give-prs-pass.3sg

‘The woman is buying bread in the shop. The woman is giving that to her child.’ (L. N. K.)

In Surgut Khanty, ditransitive verbs have two argument structures. In the typical construction, the recipient takes the accusative case (which is identical to the nominative for nouns), while the object is marked with the -at instructive-finalis suffix (1). Nominals and determiners do not have different forms in the accusative and the dative case, but personal pronouns differentiate the two roles morphologically, too. The direct object (patient) of monotransitive sentences is also in the accusative, which is structurally identical to the nominative.

In the other construction (which is less frequent), the theme takes the accusative case, while the recipient gets a lative-type suffix (nominal recipients take the -a lative or the -nam proximative marker, while personal pronominal recipients are in the dative (2a)). In order to differentiate between the three arguments of ditransitive verbs, the passive construction is frequently used in Surgut Khanty. In passive sentences, the agent is marked with the -nə locative suffix, the recipient is in the nominative, while the patient takes the instructive-finalis case ending (3). If the information structure of the sentence enables it, the non-overt determiner, displaying a known object, triggers the verb form to follow the determinate conjugation (2b). The topic requires further research.