Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 2020, Page 143

assume that the pivot is merged in Spec,RootP, as a Performer. The the-
matic role of the pivot många studenter is then not determined solely by
the verb arbeta but also by the syntactic position where it is merged. In
presentational sentences, sole arguments of verbs that in isolation are
considered to be agentive, can be merged in Spec,RootP. The interesting
fact is that in that position the argument loses (some of) its agentive
properties. Its characteristics are thus not determined by the verb it is an
argument of but by the presentational construction itself, unlike the piv-
ots of motion and position verbs discussed in section 3.5. (57) shows a
similar pattern; when the subject is merged in Spec,vP and raised to
Spec,IP and Spec,CP, it is possible to add a degree modifier mycket ‘a lot’
as in (57a), but not to the presentational version where the pivot remains
in the RootP.
(57)a. Studenterna har arbetat mycket hela terminen. (Swe.)
students.def have worked a.lot whole term.def
‘The students have worked a lot the whole term.’
b. *Det har arbetat mycket några studenter hela terminen.
expl have worked a.lot some students whole term.def
c. *Det har arbetat några studenter mycket hela terminen.
expl have worked some students a.lot whole term.def
Another construction which requires some agentivity on the part of the
subject is the resultative which is formed by adding a reflexive and a pred-
icative adjective. This is fine with an ordinary subject, but not in a pre-
sentational sentence.21
(58)a. Studenterna hade arbetat sig trötta. (Swe.)
students.def had worked refl tired.pl
‘The students had worked so that they were tired.’
b. *Det hade arbetat sig några studenter trötta.
expl had worked refl some students tired.pl
Thematic constraints on presentational sentences in Icelandic and Swedish 143
21 Thanks to Einar Freyr Sigurðsson for alerting us to this type. Note that verbs with
inherent reflexive pronouns are possible in presentational sentences with Performer piv-
ots, as shown in (i):
(i) Det hade satt sig några barn på trappan. (Swe.)
expl had sat refl some children on staircase.def
‘Some children had sat down on the stairs.’
The reflexive sig here is a non-argument, as can be seen from the English translation, and
hence does not have a distinct role from the Performer.