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Null Referential Subjects in Övdalian

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Author

  • Henrik Rosenkvist

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).

Publishing year

2010

Language

English

Pages

231-267

Publication/Series

Nordic Journal of Linguistics

Volume

33

Issue

03

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Topic

  • Languages and Literature

Keywords

  • null subjects
  • Övdalian
  • syntax

Status

Published

Project

  • GReNS (Germanic Referential Null Subjects)

Research group

  • GRIMM

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0332-5865