So, when you think of the event as causing the muffin to go somewhere — where you're doing something to the muffin — you say, "" Give the muffin to the mouse. "" When you construe it as "" cause the mouse to have something, "" you're doing something to the mouse, and therefore you express it as, "" Give the mouse the muffin. "" So which verbs go in which construction — the problem with which I began — depends on whether the verb specifies a kind of motion or a kind of possession change.