Empirical investigations of agreement in pancake constructions
Klingvall, Eva LU
; Beijer, Fabian
LU
and Heinat, Fredrik
LU
(2026)
In Nordic Journal of Linguistics
- Abstract
In three empirical studies, we compare one syntactic and one semantic approach to agreement preferences in so-called pancake constructions (pcs) in Swedish, as in Senap är starkt ‘Mustard is strong’.pcs are either substance-denoting, naming an inherent property of the subject, or situation-denoting, naming a property of the subject that is linked to some event. These two types were found to differ in predicative agreement patterns when their subjects were modified (e.g. Skånsk senap är … ‘Scanian mustard is’). The studies also indicate that the presence of a modal verb can affect agreement patterns differently in the two types: substance-denoting pcs were affected by modification and modality to a much larger extent than... (More)
In three empirical studies, we compare one syntactic and one semantic approach to agreement preferences in so-called pancake constructions (pcs) in Swedish, as in Senap är starkt ‘Mustard is strong’.pcs are either substance-denoting, naming an inherent property of the subject, or situation-denoting, naming a property of the subject that is linked to some event. These two types were found to differ in predicative agreement patterns when their subjects were modified (e.g. Skånsk senap är … ‘Scanian mustard is’). The studies also indicate that the presence of a modal verb can affect agreement patterns differently in the two types: substance-denoting pcs were affected by modification and modality to a much larger extent than situation-denoting ones. We conclude that the two approaches can explain some patterns, but leave others unexplained, and the results lend partial support to analyses that make a syntactic difference between the two types of pcs.
(Less)
- author
- Klingvall, Eva
LU
; Beijer, Fabian
LU
and Heinat, Fredrik
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- subject
- keywords
- modality, morphological agreement, pre-modification, predicative adjectives, Swedish
- in
- Nordic Journal of Linguistics
- publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105029689086
- ISSN
- 0332-5865
- DOI
- 10.1017/S0332586525100723
- project
- (Dis)agreement in Swedish
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 4b115fca-d4b6-449b-b76b-3cb98eb1a437
- date added to LUP
- 2026-03-02 09:46:50
- date last changed
- 2026-06-18 20:07:52
@article{4b115fca-d4b6-449b-b76b-3cb98eb1a437,
abstract = {{<p>In three empirical studies, we compare one syntactic and one semantic approach to agreement preferences in so-called pancake constructions (pcs) in Swedish, as in Senap är starkt ‘Mustard is strong’.pcs are either substance-denoting, naming an inherent property of the subject, or situation-denoting, naming a property of the subject that is linked to some event. These two types were found to differ in predicative agreement patterns when their subjects were modified (e.g. Skånsk senap är … ‘Scanian mustard is’). The studies also indicate that the presence of a modal verb can affect agreement patterns differently in the two types: substance-denoting pcs were affected by modification and modality to a much larger extent than situation-denoting ones. We conclude that the two approaches can explain some patterns, but leave others unexplained, and the results lend partial support to analyses that make a syntactic difference between the two types of pcs.</p>}},
author = {{Klingvall, Eva and Beijer, Fabian and Heinat, Fredrik}},
issn = {{0332-5865}},
keywords = {{modality; morphological agreement; pre-modification; predicative adjectives; Swedish}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Cambridge University Press}},
series = {{Nordic Journal of Linguistics}},
title = {{Empirical investigations of agreement in pancake constructions}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0332586525100723}},
doi = {{10.1017/S0332586525100723}},
year = {{2026}},
}