436 LINDA SCHWARTZ
this paper, is the cross-linguistic patterning of identificational structures
such as Sam is a sailor and attributive structures such as Sam is tall. In lan
guages like French and Russian, where the language is claimed to exhibit a
subjective-objective distinction (Burzio 1986 for French; Pesetsky 1982 for
Russian), these constructions do not pass the diagnostic tests for objectivity
but rather pattern like subjectives, even though they fall generally under
the semantic characterizations which have been proposed for typical objec
tive verbs, e.g., lack of protagonist control (Rosen 1984), non-agentivity
(Pesetsky 1982), stativity/affectedness (Centineo 1986), stativity or non-
agentivity varying language-specifically (Van Valin 1987). In Dakota, on
the other hand, this class splits, with the majority of its members patterning
with objectives. Finally, in Italian, these constructions pattern subjectively
with respect to one presumed diagnostic of subjectivity (ne-cliticization)
and objectively with respect to another (auxiliary selection).
In this paper, I will argue that a closer look at the thematic structure of
attributive and identificational constructions and other objective and sub
jective constructions in each of the languages cited above will make it possi
ble to state the conditions under which attributive and identificational con
structions pattern as subjectives or as objectives. I will first briefly review
the evidence regarding the patterning of attributive and identificational
constructions. I will then consider two alternative thematic analyses in
which the single syntactic argument of an attributive or identificational
predicate is assigned alternatively the role of theme or location, with the
attribute or identifying property viewed alternatively as a location (if the
attribute or identificand is theme) or as a theme (if the attribute or iden-
tificand is location). I will then use these alternatives and the notion of
default patterns as the basis for accounting for the variable cross-linguistic
patterning of these predicates as objective or subjective under the assump
tion of the Motivated Alignment Hypothesis.- The unaccusative-unergative patterns of attributive and identificational
predicates
The observation that identificational and attributive predicates pattern with
subjectives cross-linguistically is found in Pesetsky (1982).^3 This observa
tion is also made regarding the language-specific pattern in Russian by
Chvany (1975) and in Italian by Burzio (1981, 1986).