Null Referential Subjects in Övdalian

Summary, in English

In this article, Övdalian null subjects are introduced and analysed. A general background to Övdalian is provided, whereupon the possible null subjects (wįð ('we') and ið ('you')) are presented. Interestingly, these null subjects do not appear in the same syntactic positions; whereas null ið seems to be unrestricted, null wįð may only appear in positions immediately preceding the finite verb. It is suggested that null wįð has emerged through a reanalysis, in which imperative clauses in 1p plural have been interpreted as indicative, while null ið is possible since the pronoun ið has merged with the verb affix, i.e, it has become a clitic. The properties of null subjects in Övdalian is then used in a critical discussion concerning Platzack's (2003, 2004) hypothesis regarding null subjects and partial null subject languages, and, finally, some other Germanic partial null subject languages are discussed in the light of Sigurðsson (2004).

• Författare: Henrik Rosenkvist
• Avdelning/ar: Avdelningen för svenska, danska och isländska, tolkning i offentlig sektor och översättning
• Publiceringsår: 2010
• Språk: Engelska
• Sidor: 231-267
• Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie: Nordic Journal of Linguistics
• Volym: 33
• Issue: 03
• Länkar: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S033258651000020X
• Dokumenttyp: Artikel i tidskrift
• Förlag: Cambridge University Press
• Ämne: Languages and Literature
• Nyckelord: null subjects; Övdalian; syntax
• Status: Published
• Projekt: GReNS (Germanic Referential Null Subjects)
• Forskningsgrupp: GRIMM
• ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt: ISSN: 0332-5865