Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2003, Blaðsíða 99

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c. Jón leigir íbúðina.
Jón(N) rents the flat(A)
‘Jón rents the flat (to/from somebody).’
(la), the subject Jón is an agent and the goal is expressed by the indirect object
Björn. In (lb), on the other hand, the subject expresses the goal, the source surfacing
ln a prepositional phrase. In both sentences the direct object is the verb’s theme
(according to common definitions of theme). This shows that with leigja the subject
can either be an agent or a goal, depending on the presence of other arguments. But
since the indirect object in constructions like (la) and the prepositional phrase in
constructions like (lb) are optional, structures like (lc) are ambiguous, as indicated
ln parentheses in the gloss. In other words, the subject in (lc) can either be interpret-
e<l as an agent or as a goal.
Very few verbs behave like leigja in this respect and it seems that their dual nat-
ure is relatively recent in some instances. It is argued in the paper that the dual nature
°f leigja and the ambiguity of structures like (lc) may have served as a model for a
reinterpretation of these verbs. Cases in point are mainly lána ‘lend/borrow’ and erfa
mherit/leave in inheritance’ _ also fá ‘receive/hand over’. Examples of goal-subjects
w>th lána are numerous and many of them old. Such usage, however, is not consider-
ed acceptable, e.g. in dictionaries, where only the usage with an agent subject is
ntarked as normal. Conversely, older examples with erfa all seem to have goal sub-
jects and examples of the subject acting as agent are fairly recent and such examples
are n°t found in dictionaries.
AU the verbs in question are verbs of change of possession (cf. Levin 1993) and
they are thus semantically related to verbs like gjalda ‘pay’, skulda ‘owe’ and versla
frade’, although these do not (yet) share the dual nature exhibited by leigja ‘owe’.
Margrét Jónsdóttir
hlenskuskor
Háskóla íslands
lS-101 Reykjavík
mj°ns@hi.is