Booth, Hannah & Schätzle, Christin & Börjars, Kersti & Butt, Miriam: Dative Subjects and the Rise of Positional Licensing in Icelandic
We present the results of research on two
areas of Icelandic historical syntax: dative subjects and V1 word order. These
strands of syntax had previously been examined independently, but were found to
be intimately connected as part of a broader collaboration between theoretical
and computational linguistics involving the Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus
(IcePaHC). The interaction we found between V1 declaratives and dative subjects
provides evidence for: a) changes over time with respect to the association of
dative arguments with the subject role (contra Barðdal and Eythórsson 2009); b)
the gradual development of left peripheral structure and the rise of positional
licensing (in line with Kiparsky 1995, 1997). We provide an analysis of
positional licensing in LFG terms and account for the newly observed complex
interaction between datives, subjects and word order presented in this paper.
December 22, 2022 |
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