70 ROBERT D. VAN VALIN, JR.
(54) a. Bill sent the notice [theme] to his lawyer [locative].
a'. Bill sent his lawyer [locative] the notice [theme].
b. Max loaded the olives [theme] into his minivan [locative].
b'. Max loaded his minivan [locative] with the olives [theme].In terms of the hierarchy in (25), theme outranks locative for undergoer-
hood, and therefore (54a,b) represent the unmarked choices for undergoer.
In (54a',b'), on the other hand, the locative has been selected as undergoer,
thereby yielding a marked assignment to undergoer. Both the locative and
theme arguments are core arguments, as they are both represented in the
LS of the verb (see FVV, section 2.6). This construction is found in many
languages, e.g. Nengone, Indonesian (Austronesian), Acooli, Lango (Nilo
tic), Choi (Mayan), Hungarian, Dyirbal, and numerous Bantu languages
(see Foley & Van Valin 1985, section 3.3 and references cited therein).
The second type of dative shift construction involves the occurrence of
a non-argument of the verb as undergoer, the most frequent one being a
beneficiary. This is exemplified in (55) for English and in (56) for Sama
(Walton 1986).
(55) a. Larry baked a cake for Sue.
b. Larry baked Sue a cake.
(56) a. 0-b'lli ku taumpa' ma si Andi.
up-buy ISG shoes for PM Andy
"I bought the shoes for Andy."
b. 0-Vlli-an ku si Andi taumpa.
up-buy-BEN ISG PM Andy shoes
"I bought Andy some shoes."
The LS for English bake or Sama Vili "buy" does not contain a beneficiary
argument, and in the (a) sentences this argument appears as a peripheral
oblique phrase. In the (b) sentences, however, it appears as undergoer, and
in Sama this requires the addition of the -an suffix to the verb. Since Sama
is syntactically ergative, the derived undergoer is also the syntactic pivot
(see Walton 1986 for detailed discussion). The occurrence of a beneficiary
as undergoer is very common, and in some languages, e.g. many Bantu lan
guages, there is no way to express a beneficiary except as undergoer in the
"applied verb" (applicative) construction. Examples from Chichewa (Baker
1988) and Kinyarwanda (Kimenyi 1978) are given in (57) and (58).^43