The change that never happened: the story of oblique subjects
(2003) In Journal of Linguistics 39(3). p.439-472- Abstract
- This paper contributes to an ongoing debate on the syntactic status of oblique subject-like NPs in the ‘impersonal’ construction (of the type me-thinks) in Old Germanic. The debate is caused by the lack of canonical subject case marking in such NPs. It has been argued that these NPs are syntactic objects, but we provide evidence for their subject status, as in Modern Icelandic and Faroese. Thus, we argue that the syntactic status of the oblique subject-like NPs has not changed at all from object status to subject status, contra standard claims in the literature. Our evidence stems from Old Icelandic, but the analysis has implications for the other old Germanic languages as well. However, a change from non-canonical to canonical subject... (More)
- This paper contributes to an ongoing debate on the syntactic status of oblique subject-like NPs in the ‘impersonal’ construction (of the type me-thinks) in Old Germanic. The debate is caused by the lack of canonical subject case marking in such NPs. It has been argued that these NPs are syntactic objects, but we provide evidence for their subject status, as in Modern Icelandic and Faroese. Thus, we argue that the syntactic status of the oblique subject-like NPs has not changed at all from object status to subject status, contra standard claims in the literature. Our evidence stems from Old Icelandic, but the analysis has implications for the other old Germanic languages as well. However, a change from non-canonical to canonical subject case marking (‘Nominative Sickness’) has affected all the Germanic languages to a varying degree. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/144223
- author
- Barddal, Johanna LU and Eythorsson, Thorhallur
- organization
- publishing date
- 2003
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Journal of Linguistics
- volume
- 39
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 439 - 472
- publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000188065000001
- scopus:33744937972
- ISSN
- 0022-2267
- DOI
- 10.1017/S002222670300207X
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Swedish (015011001)
- id
- 41281a96-8f31-435a-b26a-8a78fd16f243 (old id 144223)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 11:36:37
- date last changed
- 2023-11-10 18:06:46
@article{41281a96-8f31-435a-b26a-8a78fd16f243,
abstract = {{This paper contributes to an ongoing debate on the syntactic status of oblique subject-like NPs in the ‘impersonal’ construction (of the type me-thinks) in Old Germanic. The debate is caused by the lack of canonical subject case marking in such NPs. It has been argued that these NPs are syntactic objects, but we provide evidence for their subject status, as in Modern Icelandic and Faroese. Thus, we argue that the syntactic status of the oblique subject-like NPs has not changed at all from object status to subject status, contra standard claims in the literature. Our evidence stems from Old Icelandic, but the analysis has implications for the other old Germanic languages as well. However, a change from non-canonical to canonical subject case marking (‘Nominative Sickness’) has affected all the Germanic languages to a varying degree.}},
author = {{Barddal, Johanna and Eythorsson, Thorhallur}},
issn = {{0022-2267}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{439--472}},
publisher = {{Cambridge University Press}},
series = {{Journal of Linguistics}},
title = {{The change that never happened: the story of oblique subjects}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/2559188/624987.pdf}},
doi = {{10.1017/S002222670300207X}},
volume = {{39}},
year = {{2003}},
}