Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2002, Page 45

Það rignir þágufalli á Islandi 43
NAG spyrja e-n e-s ‘ask somebody(A) something(G)’ (10)
NDD lofa e-m e-u ‘promise somebody(D) something(D)’ (10)
NDG synja e-m e-s ‘deny somebody(D) something(G)’ (15)
NAA kosta e-n e-ð ‘cost somebody(A) something(A)’ (2)
As the reader will note, the first argument (the subject) is always nom-
inative and hence it is omitted in the examples in (12). The NDA case
frame is by far the most common one for ditransitive verbs but the NAD
ffame is also fairly common. In Icelandic, as in the other Germanic lan-
guages, the indirect object is the linearly first object, the intended recip-
ient, hence typically human, “the person for whom something is done
or to whom something happens” (Stefán Einarsson 1945:107). Dative is
generally said to be the case of the indirect object of a ditransitive (dou-
ble object) verb, e.g. gefa ‘give’: hann gafmér bókina ‘he gave me(D)
the book(A)’. The accusative direct object is then theme.
The dative is thus used for the recipient of verbs like gefa ‘give’ but
it is also used for beneficiaries (or maleficiaries) of verbs like auðvelda
‘make easier’. Recipients and beneficiaries may be considered sub-
types of the thematic role goal and some examples are given in (13):
(13)a. Recipient dative:
gefa ‘give’, bjóða ‘offer’, lána ‘loan’, leigja ‘rent’, segja ‘say’,
selja ‘sell’, senda ‘send’, sýna ‘show’, veita ‘award, offer’
b. Benefactive dative:
auðvelda, létta ‘make easier’, torvelda ‘make harder’, setja e-m
tímamörk ‘set someone(D) a deadline(A)’, baka e-m sorg
‘cause somebody(D) grief(A)’, baka e-m vandrœði ‘make
trouble for somebody’ (lit. “make somebody(D) trouble(A)”),
búa sér e-ð (til) ‘make oneself(D) something(A)’, fá sér e-ð
‘get oneself (D) something(A)’, heyja sér orðaforða ‘acquire a
vocabulary’ (lit. “acquire oneself(D) vocabulary(A)”), notfœra
sér e-ð ‘make use of something’ (lit. “make-useful oneself(D)
something(A)”)
As we will see below, these two semantic roles are the most common
ones that can be associated with the dative.