Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2002, Page 63

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Pað rignir þágufalli á íslandi
(50) taking a dative object: taking an accusative object:
hlífa ‘protect’ vs. vernda ‘protect’
The dative nominal in the two curious examples in (51) are semanti-
cally benefactives:
(51) a. Hverjum klukkan glymur.
‘For whom the bell tolls.’ [the title of the famous novel]
b. Börnunum var vendilega snýtt.
‘The children(D) were carefully [helped to] blow their noses.’ (OH)
Note that the dative in (51b) must be analyzed as a verbal argument,
since it has become the grammatical subject of the passive voice.
Plausibly belonging to the same semantic class are the objects of
verbs trusting (treysta ‘trust’, trúa ‘believe’), which take dative
objects. Halldór Halldórsson (n.d., pp. 3—4) also includes heilsa
‘greet’, unna Tove’, hœla ‘praise’, as well as verbs indicating useful-
ness, convenience, appropriateness, etc., such as henta ‘suit’ and
tsama ‘be appropriate’:18
(52) a. Þessi kennslubók hefur aldrei hentað mér vel.
‘This textbook has never suited me(D) well.’
b. Illa samir þér að berjask í móti mér.
It suits you badly to fight against me. (HH, from Flateyjarbók)
As in the case of ditransitives, we do not only have dative objects
that have the semantic role of a beneficiary but also dative objects that
have the role of a recipient rather than a beneficiary, although the dif-
ference is not always clear cut. Some examples are given in (53):
18 Some of the verbs discussed here, such as gagna ‘be of use to’, and henta ‘suit’,
are “altemating verbs” in the sense that the dative argument can be either grammatical
subject or object, as can for instance be seen from the behavior of the arguments in the
subject-verb inversion in direct questions like these (see also Jóhanna Barðdal 2001a):
(i)a. Hefur þér aldrei hentað þetta?
has you(D) never suited this
b. Hefur þetta aldrei hentað þér?
has this(N) never suited you
‘Has this never suited you?’