Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 2020, Síða 142

We see that only the version without overt object is possible in Swedish,
see (53c), and only the version with an IP-pivot is possible in Icelandic,
see (54c). This raises the question if the relevant factor is whether there
is an overt Theme object or not (as suggested in Platzack 1983), or which
thematic role the pivot has; Agent if merged in Spec,vP or Performer if
merged in Spec,RootP. There are several indications that pivots that are
merged as Performers are interpreted differently from Agents regardless
of the transitivity factor. We first exemplify these indications for Swedish
and then give similar Icelandic examples.
When used intransitively, the single argument of verbs like ringa ‘phone’
and vinna ‘work’ is merged as an external argument in a specifier. These
verbs are often referred to as unergative.20 A distinguishing property of the
Scandinavian languages is that most unergative verbs can be used in presen-
tational sentences, see e.g. Sveen (1996:74ff.) and Lødrup (1999:207). How -
ever, the presentational versions differ from the ordinary sentences in cer-
tain ways which shed more light on the distinction be tween Agents and
Performers. In an ordinary sentence the intransitive verb arbeta ‘work’ in
Swedish has clear agentive properties; the subject argument can, for in -
stance, be modified by a subject-oriented adverb. This suggests that it is
first merged as an Agent in Spec,vP and then raised to Spec,CP.
(55) Många studenter hade motvilligt arbetat hela veckoslutet.
many students had reluctantly worked whole weekend.def
‘Many students had reluctantly worked all weekend.’
The presentational version in (56a) is fine, but not the version with the
subject-oriented adverb, as noted by Anward (1981) and discussed in
Teleman et al. (1999:Vol. 3, 400f.) and Zaenen et al. (2017).
(56)a. Det hade arbetat många studenter hela veckoslutet. (Swe.)
expl had worked many students whole weekend.def
‘Many students had worked all weekend.’
b. ?*Det hade motvilligt arbetat många studenter hela veckoslutet.
expl had reluctantly worked many students whole weekend.def
‘Many students had worked all weekend.’
c. ?*Det hade arbetat många studenter motvilligt hela veckoslutet.
expl had worked many students reluctantly whole weekend.def
Given our assumption that the expletive is merged in Spec,vP in Swedish,
the pivot cannot be merged there, but since (56a) is grammatical, we
Engdahl, Sigurðsson, Zaenen and Maling142
20 For the terminology, see the pedagogical note in Thráinsson (2007:250).