This dissertation examines the phenomenon of ethical datives (EDs) in two Slavic languages, Russian and Macedonian. EDs are defined through a pragmatic lens as discourse licensed perspective markers in which a dative form expresses a speaker's decision to signal someone's emotional attitude--real or perceived--toward the action. Owing to the fact that linguistic and extra-linguistic contexts are crucial in both the emergence of EDs and the interpretation of their meaning, an examination of this construction must be rooted in an analysis of discourse pragmatics that extends beyond that of a sentence. The meaning of EDs is arrived at through their opposition with possessive datives (marked for possession) on the one hand and benefactive datives (marked for intent) on the other. EDs are unmarked for both possession and intent while being marked for emotivity since that is the single, unifying meaning that is present in all types of this construction. Copular-existential, transitive, intransitive, and reflexive ED types are identified for the two languages. Additionally, Macedonian has double EDs where two different ED clitics appear next to each other. The ED phenomenon is placed into the wider typological (Slavic) and areal (Balkan) contexts, and EDs, with the possible exception of double forms, are determined not to be a Balkan feature. The fact that Macedonian utilizes ED forms differently than Russian is illustrated by first noting the similarities and differences between the form and meaning of EDs in the two languages, and by conducting a comparison of the translations of texts between the two languages. The differences that Russian and Macedonian exhibit with regard to this construction can be explained by the divergent paths of these languages and their different environments. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]