Chapter published in:
Syntactic Variation in Insular Scandinavian
Edited by Höskuldur Thráinsson, Caroline Heycock, Hjalmar P. Petersen and Zakaris Svabo Hansen
[Studies in Germanic Linguistics 1] 2017
► pp. 53–90

Variation in oblique subject constructions in Insular Scandinavian

| University of Iceland
| University of Iceland
This chapter reviews the division of morphological case into structural case and lexical case and the latter in turn into regular (thematic) and idiosyncratic case (Yip, Maling and Jackendoff 1987). The Case Directionality Hypothesis (Eythórsson 2002, 2015b) states that historical development of case is predictable if one assumes this division: structural case replaces lexical case and idiosyncratic lexical case will yield to regular (thematic) lexical case. This hypothesis is tested on data which were collected in projects on variation in subject case in Icelandic and Faroese. It is concluded that the development of subject case in Icelandic and Faroese is to a significant degree in accordance with the predictions of the CDH, but interesting exceptions are also described and discussed.
Keywords: case marking, structural case, lexical case, thematic case, idiosyncratic case, Case Directionality Hypothesis, productivity, Faroese, Icelandic
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Structural case and lexical case
    • 2.2Thematic (regular) lexical case and idiosyncratic lexical case
    • 2.3Changes in the case marking of arguments
  • 3.Variation in subject case in Icelandic
    • 3.1The “early” studies
    • 3.2The IceDiaSyn survey
    • 3.3Interim conclusion
  • 4.Variation in subject case in Faroese
    • 4.1Experiencer verbs
    • 4.2Theme verbs
    • 4.3Conclusion about subject case in Faroese
  • 5.Two apparent puzzles
    • 5.1Case non-preservation in Faroese passives
    • 5.2 “Impersonalization” in Icelandic and Faroese
  • 6.The implications of the development of case marking
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 18 July 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/sigl.1.03eyt
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