Peas and pancakes. On apparent disagreement and (null) light verbs in Swedish
Author
Summary, in English
Two variants of what looks like disagreement between a subject and a predicative adjective are explored:
(i) Senap är gul-t.
mustard.COMMON is yellow-NEUT
‘Mustard is yellow.’
= Construction NOM(inal)
(ii) Två älskare är omoralisk-t.
[two lovers]COMMON.PL is immoral-NEUT
‘To have two lovers is immoral.’
= Construction PROP(ositional)
Having shown how Construction NOM and Construction PROP differ, I demonstrate that the subject of Construction PROP is clausal. I argue that the topmost XP of the subject phrase of both constructions contains a null neuter element. This accounts for the neuter predicative agreement; hence the idea of default agreement or semantic agreement can be dismissed. I also argue that the subject in (ii) contains a vP , the head of which is a null light verb. Other instances of null light verbs in Swedish are identified too. Finally, I propose an analysis that accounts for the close relation between Construction PROP and the corresponding construction with a med-phrase ‘with-phrase’.
(i) Senap är gul-t.
mustard.COMMON is yellow-NEUT
‘Mustard is yellow.’
= Construction NOM(inal)
(ii) Två älskare är omoralisk-t.
[two lovers]COMMON.PL is immoral-NEUT
‘To have two lovers is immoral.’
= Construction PROP(ositional)
Having shown how Construction NOM and Construction PROP differ, I demonstrate that the subject of Construction PROP is clausal. I argue that the topmost XP of the subject phrase of both constructions contains a null neuter element. This accounts for the neuter predicative agreement; hence the idea of default agreement or semantic agreement can be dismissed. I also argue that the subject in (ii) contains a vP , the head of which is a null light verb. Other instances of null light verbs in Swedish are identified too. Finally, I propose an analysis that accounts for the close relation between Construction PROP and the corresponding construction with a med-phrase ‘with-phrase’.
Department/s
Publishing year
2009
Language
English
Pages
35-72
Publication/Series
Nordic Journal of Linguistics
Volume
32
Issue
1
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Topic
- Languages and Literature
Keywords
- Ärter är gott-sentences
- agreement
- default gender
- passepartouts
- semantic agreement
- Pannekaker er godt-sentences
- neuter
- med-phrase
- disagreement
- light verb
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0332-5865