Cover not available
Part of
Studies in Övdalian Morphology and Syntax: New research on a lesser-known Scandinavian language
Edited by Kristine Bentzen, Henrik Rosenkvist and Janne Bondi Johannessen †
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 221] 2015
► pp. 87–105

Optional V-to-I movement 
in Övdalian

| Buskerud and Vestfold University College

The paper examines causes of the ongoing loss of V-to-I movement in Övdalian, in the light of the parametric correlation between rich verbal agreement and verb movement to I (since Kosmeijer 1986). I show that the once obligatory V-to-I movement in Classical Övdalian has not only become optional, but also dispreferred in Traditional Övdalian, while at the same time the verbal inflection has been kept intact. Therefore, I conclude that there is no visible correlation between rich verbal agreement and V-to-I movement in Övdalian. Instead, I argue that the loss of V-to-I movement was caused by a high placement of negation that blurred evidence for verb movement.

Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 3.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 22 January 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.221.04gar
References
Alexiadou, Artemis & Fanselow, Gisbert
2002 On the correlation between morphology and syntax: the case of V-to-I. In Studies in Comparative Germanic Syntax. Proceedings form the 15th Workshop on Comparative Germanic Syntax [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 53], C. Jan-Wouter Zwart & Werner Abraham (eds), 219–242. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Angantýsson, Ásgrímur
2011 The Syntax of Embedded Clauses in Icelandic and Related Languages. Reykjavík: Hugvísindastofun Háskóla Íslands.Google Scholar
Bentzen, Kristine
2003 Acquiring V-to-I movement in the absence of morphological cues. In The Proceedings of the 19th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics, 573–588. Tromsø: University of Tromsø.Google Scholar
2007 Order and Structure in Embedded Clauses in Northern Norwegian. PhD dissertation, CASTL, University of Tromsø.
Bentzen, Kristine, Garbacz, Piotr, Heycock, Caroline & Hrafnbjargarson, Gunnar Hrafn
2009 On variation in Faroese verb placement. In NORMS Papers on Faroese, Nordlyd:Tromsø University Working Papers on Language and Linguistics 36(2): 78–102.Google Scholar
Boeckx, Cedric
2012 Considerations pertaining to the nature of logodiversity, or how to construct a parametric space without parameters. LingBuzz. [URL]
In press. What principles and parameters got wrong. In Linguistic Variation in the Minimalist Framework, Carme Picallo (ed.) Oxford OUP
Bobaljik, Jonathan David & Thráinsson, Höskuldur
1998 Two heads are not always better than one. Syntax 1: 37–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bobaljik, Jonathan David
1995 Morphosyntax: The Syntax of Verbal Inflection. PhD dissertation,MIT.
2002 Realizing Germanic inflection: Why morphology does not drive syntax. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 6(2): 129–167. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, Noam
1981 Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo
1999 Adverbs and Functional Heads: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective [Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax]. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Falk, Cecilia
1993 Non-Referential Subjects in the History of Swedish. PhD dissertation, Lund University.
Garbacz, Piotr
2007 What determines V0-to-I0 movement in Övdalian? Paper presented at the Grand Meeting for ScanDiaSyn at Mývatn, Iceland, August 2007. [URL]
2010 Word Order in Övdalian. A Study in Variation and Change. PhD dissertation, Lund University.
2012 Morphology and syntax in the Scandinavian vernaculars of Ovansiljan. LingBuzz. [URL]
2013 Huvudsatsordföljd i bisatser: Skandinaviska skriftspråk vs. skandinaviska dialekter. In Filologiskt smörgåsbord, 2: Bidrag från skandinavistiken i Kraków, Ewa Data-Bukowska & Magdalena Wasilewska-Chmura (eds), 67–81. Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press.Google Scholar
Garbacz, Piotr & Johannessen, Janne Bondi
This volume. Övdalian from 1909 to 2009.
Hrafnbjargarson, Gunnar Hrafn & Wiklund, Anna-Lena
2010 AGR and V2. Theoretical Linguistics 36: 57–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Håkansson, Gisela & Dooley-Collberg, Sheila
1994 The preference for modal + neg: An L2 perspective applied to Swedish L1 children. Second Language Research 10: 95–124. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Henry, Alison & Cottell, Siobhan
2007 A new approach to transitive expletives: Evidence from Belfast English. English Language and Linguistics 11(2): 279–299. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heycock, Caroline, Sorace, Antonella & Hansen, Zakaris Svabo
2010 V-to-I and V2 in subordinate clauses: An investigation of Faroese in relation to Icelandic and Danish. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 13: 61–97. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Holmberg, Anders & Platzack, Christer
1995 The Role of Inflection in Scandinavian Syntax. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Holmberg, Anders
2010 Parameters in minimalist theory: The case of Scandinavian. Theoretical Linguistics 36: 1–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hróarsdóttir, Þorbjörg, Hrafnbjargarson, Gunnar Hrafn, Wiklund, Anna-Lena & Bentzen, Kristine
2006 The Tromsø guide to Scandinavian verb movement. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 78:1–36Google Scholar
Iversen, Ragnvald
1918 Syntaksen i Tromsø bymaal. En kort oversigt. Kristiania: Bymaals-laget.Google Scholar
Johnson, Kyle
1990 On the syntax of inflectional paradigms. Ms, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Jonas, Dianne
2002 Residual V-to-I. In Syntactic Effects of Morphological Change, David Lightfoot (ed.), 251–270. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kosmeijer, Wim
1986 The status of the finite inflection in Icelandic and Swedish. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 26: 1–41.Google Scholar
Levander, Lars
1909 Älvdalsmålet i Dalarna. Ordböjning ock syntax. Stockholm: Kungl. boktryckeriet P. A. Norstedt & Söner.Google Scholar
1925 Dalmålet. Beskrivning och historia, I. Uppsala.Google Scholar
Newmeyer, Frederick J
2004 Against a parameter-setting approach to language variation. Linguistic Variation Yearbook 4: 181–234. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 A rejoinder to ‘On the role of parameters in Universal Grammar: A reply to Newmeyer’ by Ian Roberts & Anders Holmberg. [URL]
Pettersson, Gertrud
1988 Bisatsledföljden i svenskan eller Varifrån kommer BIFF-regeln? Arkiv för nordisk filologi 103:157–180.Google Scholar
Platzack, Christer & Holmberg, Anders
1989 The role of AGR and finiteness in Germanic VO languages. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 43: 51–76.Google Scholar
Rohrbacher, Bernhard W
1999 Morphology-Driven Syntax, A Theory of V to I Raising and Pro-drop [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 15]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rosenkvist, Henrik
1994 Tecken på syntaktisk utveckling i älvdalsmålet under senare tid. BA-dissertation, Lund University.
2011 Verb raising and referential null subjects in Övdalian. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 88: 1–20.Google Scholar
Sundquist, John Donald
2002 Morphosyntactic Change in the History of the Mainland Scandinavian Languages. Indiana University, Dept. of Germanic Studies.Google Scholar
2003 The rich agreement hypothesis and Early Modern Danish embedded-clause word order. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 26(2): 233–258. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thráinsson, Höskuldur
1996 On the non-universality of functional categories. In Minimal Ideas. Syntactic Studies in the Minimalist Framework, Werner Abraham, Samuel David Epstein, Höskuldur Thráinsson & C. Jan-Wouter Zwart (eds), 253–281. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007 The Syntax of Icelandic. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 Predictable and unpredictable sources of variable verb and adverb placement in Scandinavian. Lingua 120: 1062–1088. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vikner, Sten
1995a Verb Movement and Expletive Subjects in the Germanic Languages. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
1995b V0-to-I0 movement and inflection for persons in all tenses. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 55: 1–27.Google Scholar
Wiklund, Anna-Lena, Hrafnbjargarson, Gunnar Hrafn, Bentzen, Kristine & Hróarsdóttir, Thorbjörg
2007 Rethinking Scandinavian verb movement. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 10(3): 203–233. DOI logoGoogle Scholar