Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 2020, Page 137

the Icelandic verbs hjálpa ‘help’ and þakka ‘thank’ which have been ana-
lyzed as taking a Goal argument. However, there is variation with these
verbs. Some speakers accept VP-pivots in addition to IP-pivots (see, for
examples, Thráinsson 2007:271f.).
(36)a. Það var gömlum manni hjálpað yfir götuna. (Ice.)
expl was old.dat man.dat helped across street.def
‘An old man was helped across the street.’
b. ok/?*Það var hjálpað gömlum manni yfir götuna.
expl was helped old.dat man.dat across street.def
Platzack (2005) suggests that an affected Goal can be reanalyzed as a Patient,
that is an affected Theme. This could explain the variation with these verbs
(cf. Maling 2001). The cognate Swedish verb hjälpa is fine with a pivot.
(37) Det var kö för det hade hjälpts en andfamilj över gatan.
expl was queue because expl had help.pass a duck.family over street.def
‘There was a queue because a duck family had been helped across the street.’
3.5 Performer pivots
We next turn to intransitive verbs of motion and position which are com-
monly used in presentational sentences in both Icelandic and Swedish. In
Icelandic (38) the pivot can appear either in the VP or in the IP whereas
Swedish (39) only allows the pivot to be in the VP, as expected.
(38)a. Það hafa víst hlaupið einhverjir strákar á veginum.
expl have apparently run some boys on road.def
‘Some boys have apparently run on the road.’
b. Það hafa víst einhverjir strákar hlaupið á veginum.
expl have apparently some boys run on road.def
(39)a. Det har sprungit några pojkar på vägen.
expl have run some boys on road.def
‘Some boys have run on the road.’
b. *Det har några pojkar sprungit på vägen.
expl have some boys run on road.def
Many researchers have assumed that the argument which undergoes the
motion is a Theme, but Platzack (2010), following Christensen (2010),
assumes that it carries a different role, which we refer to as Performer.18
Thematic constraints on presentational sentences in Icelandic and Swedish 137
18 Christensen (2010) and Platzack (2010) refer to this role as Materialitet. We follow
Sigurðsson (1989:320ff.) and call it Performer.