Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

A SYNOPSIS OF ROLE AND REFERENCE GRAMMAR 77

With verbs that allow both possibilities for undergoer, two factors may
influence this choice. The first is inherent lexical content; the locative argu­
ment is normally animate or human with these verbs and the theme inani­
mate, and this may affect the choice. In some languages, e.g. Lakhota, the
animate locative (recipient) argument must be the undergoer with these
verbs. The second factor is information structure. Because this alternation
involves a change in the linear order of the NPs, and because topical NPs
tend to precede focal NPs, the status of the two arguments as [±focal] may
influence this alternation as well. (See Erteschik-Shir 1979.)
The linking of actor, undergoer and the remaining core arguments (if
any) is subject to language-specific restrictions, the main ones relating to
the selection of the primary syntactic pivot, if there is one. English, being
syntactically accusative, follows the hierarchy in (39a) (Actor > Under­
goer). There are, therefore, two possibilities with respect to each of the
possible results from step 3. These are given in (65).

(65) a. Pivot: actor-Maria; Other Core: undergoer- spatula, loca­

tive-Lorry

b. Pivot: undergoer- spatula; Other Core: locative-Larry;

Periphery: actor-Maria

 Pivot: actor-Maria; Other Core: undergoer-Larry, theme-a

spatula

d. Pivot: undergoer-Lflrry; Other Core: theme-α spatula;

Periphery: actor-Maria

The final step is the assignment of case and/or adpositions; since the sen­

tence involves only full NPs, case is irrelevant and only prepositions are to

be assigned. The preposition assignment rules for English presented in

FVV and Jolly, this volume, state that themes which are not undergoers are

marked by with,^41 that a locative argument in the LS configuration ...BE­

COME state'(x,y) which is not undergoer is marked by to, and the

peripheral actor in a passive construction is marked with by. This yields the

following sentences.

(66) a. [c Maria [N presented] the spatula to Larry]

b. [c The spatula [N was presented] to Larry] <— [p by Maria]

c. [ Maria [N presented] Larry with the spatula]

d. [c Larry [N was presented] with the spatula] «— [p by Maria]

The linking in (66a) is presented in Figure 17; the circled numbers refer to

the steps in (63).