Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

446 LINDA SCHWARTZ

Centineo claims that avere will be selected when the pivot is an actor whose
semantic role is agent, effector or theme, while essere will be selected when
any other actor is pivot, when an undergoer is pivot, or when no pivot is
present, as in impersonal constructions and weather verb constructions (not
included in the chart above but discussed in the text). She distinguishes
these groups as having an "affected" pivot {essere) vs. an "unaffected" pivot
{avere). Van Valin (1990) restates Centineo's generalization in terms of
markedness, as given in (30).

(30) Select avere if the pivot ("subject") is an unmarked actor.
An unmarked actor is an actor which is associated only with a prototypical
actor role (agent/effector) and not also associated with a prototypical
undergoer role (theme/patient). The reader is referred to Centineo (1986)
and Van Valin (1990) for fuller accounts of this analysis, particularly of the
alternation between essere and avere for the same predicate.

3.2 Attributives and identificationals

In the case of attributive and identificational predicates, illustrated in (31)

below, I will assume that copula essere is specified for two thematic rela­

tions, theme and location, but that its transitivity is 1. Since essere is stative,

its single macrorole will be undergoer, thus not falling under the conditions

for the use of avere, and correctly characterizing these constructions as

objective with respect to auxiliary selection.

(31) Attributives/Identificationals

a. Paolo è stato felice.

Paolo is been-MAsc.sG happy

"Paolo was happy."

[be' (Paolo, happy)]

I I

Loc Th

ι

U