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Article published In:
Linguistic Variation
Vol. 19:2 (2019) ► pp.199–231

Morphology and syntax in the Scandinavian vernaculars of Ovansiljan

| University of Oslo

The paper deals with the assumed correlation between morphological and syntactic phenomena, especially the one that has its roots in a parametric approach to syntax since (Chomsky 1981). Its main focus is on testing predictions presented in two works (Bobaljik and Thráinsson 1998 and Holmberg 2010a). These papers connect verbal morphology with a clustering of syntactic phenomena in the Scandinavian languages and maintain that morphological evidence – in the form of ‘rich’ verbal agreement – signifies a positive setting of a parameter that in turn makes certain syntactic patterns possible. In the present paper it is shown how this relation works when tested on a group of Ovansiljan vernaculars (East Scandinavian non-standard varieties). Five of these vernaculars have retained verbal agreement in number and person, whereas two others have not. It turns out that the hypotheses encounter difficulties when faced with the Ovansiljan data.

Keywords: morphology, syntax, Ovaniljanmålen, Övdalian, parameric approach, syntactic variation, syntactic change, verb movement, Stylistic Fronting, expletives
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The vernaculars of Ovansiljan
  • 3.Data collection
  • 4. Bobaljik and Thráinsson (1998): The Split-IP Parameter
    • 4.1Inflectional evidence of Split-IP in the Ovansiljan vernaculars
    • 4.2Syntactic evidence of Split-IP in the Ovansiljan vernaculars
      • 4.2.1V0-to-I0 movement
      • 4.2.2Transitive expletive constructions
      • 4.2.3Higher subject position in expletive constructions (HiPos)
      • 4.2.4Full DP object shift
    • 4.3Syntactic and morphological evidence for Split-IP in Ovansiljan – conclusions
  • 5. Holmberg (2010a): φ-features in T
    • 5.1Stylistic Fronting
    • 5.2Oblique subjects
    • 5.3Heavy subject postposing
    • 5.4Expletive subjects and generic subjects
    • 5.5Transitive expletives
    • 5.6φ-features in T – conclusion
  • 6.Summary and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 15 July 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.12016.gar
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