68 ROBERT D. VAN VALIN, JR.
ments, only one of them can be pivot in a passive. This verb has roughly the
same LS as English give as in (27a), and accordingly in (49a) eg "I (N)" is
an effector, henni "her (D)" is a locative (recipient; cf. fn. 23), and penin
gunum "the money (D)" is a theme. In terms of the Α-U Hierarchy in (25),
henni outranks peningunum with respect to the actor end of the hierarchy,
and therefore the hierarchy for pivot in Icelandic reflects (25), rather than
the one in (39a): the highest ranking direct core argument in terms of (25)
is pivot. That direct core argument and not just core argument is the crucial
notion can be seen in (51), in which skila appears with three core arguments
but only two direct core arguments.
(51) a. Ég skiladi peningunum til hennar.
I(N) returned the.money(o) to her(G)
"I returned the money to her."
b. Peningunum hefur vend skilad til hennar.
the.money(ö) has(iMPER) been returned to her(ü)
"The money was returned to her."
In (51a) the locative argument is not a direct core argument; it is marked by
the preposition til "to" and receives genitive case from it. In (51a), the
theme peningunum "the money (D)" is the highest ranking non-actor direct
core argument, while til hennar "to her (G)" is the highest ranking core
argument, direct or oblique, but only peningunum can be pivot in a passive,
as in (51b). Hence only direct core arguments can be pivot in a passive con
struction.
In almost all cases, the Icelandic accessibility to pivot hierarchy picks
out the undergoer, if there is one, as pivot in a passive, and this is in line
with the universal default with respect to (47a) that the non-actor appearing
as pivot in a passive is the undergoer. It also selects the correct non-mac-
rorole direct core argument, if there is no undergoer. However, an interest
ing situation arises with verbs like gefa "give" and syna "show", which have
three core arguments and follow the default macrorole rules in (26) and
take two macroroles. In (52), the actor is an agent, the undergoer a theme,
and the dative NP is an experiencer.
(52) a. Ég syndi henni bílinn.
I(N) showed her(ö) the. car (A)
"I showed her the car."
b. [do'(x)] CAUSE [BECOME see'(y,z)]