Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

(^72) ROBERT D. VAN VALIN, JR.
These examples show that "~A" is considerably more than just "U" in the
statement of passive in Kinyarwanda; as in Icelandic, direct core arguments
other than the undergoer are possible as pivot in a passive construction.
Bantu languages also present a kind of derived "object" construction
unlike the ones discussed in Foley & Van Valin (1985); in it, a non-argu­
ment becomes a direct core argument but not undergoer. The examples in
(60) are again from Kinyarwanda; in (60b) a non-argument locative and a
possessor are coded as direct core arguments.
(60) a. Úmwáana y-a-andits-e izíná rye mu gitabo
child suBj-PAST-write-MooD name of. him in book
cy'ûmugabo.
of man
"The child wrote his name in the man's book."
b. Úmwáana y-a-andik-i-yé-mo umugabo igitabo
child suBj-PAST-write-APPL-MOOD-Loc man book
izíná rye.
name of. him
"The child wrote in the man's book his name."
There are three direct core arguments after the verb in (60b), but, unlike
(59a), only umugabo "man", the undergoer (the applied "object"), has the
syntactic properties of the undergoer of a non-derived transitive verb, e.g.
the ability to function as pivot in a passive construction. Igitabo "book" is
coded as a peripheral oblique in (60a) but as a direct core argument in
(60b); it is not, however, the undergoer.
The applicative constructions (and their cousins, the dative shift con­
structions) pose a variety of interesting problems for linguistic theory, but
they do not motivate the postulation of a direct object grammatical rela­
tion. The notions of undergoer and direct core argument provide the basis
for the description and ultimately for the explanation of these phenomena.
4.6 Case marking and agreement
In syntactic theories in which grammatical relations play a role, case mark­
ing and agreement are invariably tied to them, either directly or indirectly.
Since notions like subject and direct object have no place in RRG, it is
obvious that neither case marking nor agreement can be based on them.
Rather, case marking rules make crucial reference to macroroles and direct