The typology of Old Norse revisited - the case of Middle Danish
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The typology of Old Norse revisited - the case of Middle Danish. / Heltoft, Lars.
I: NOWELE, Bind 74, Nr. 2, 2021, s. 242–277.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The typology of Old Norse revisited - the case of Middle Danish
AU - Heltoft, Lars
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Typologically, the Old and Middle Scandinavian languages preserve features lost in Modern Scandinavian (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish), especially zero arguments and inactive constructions. Both phenomena present difficulties for the analysis of the Old and Middle Scandinavian languages as configurational, and generative linguists often choose a reductionist strategy, claiming that at the level of deep structure, configurational structure persists. Based on Middle Danish, my claim will be that zero arguments are semantically different from – and therefore cannot be reduced to – pronouns, and secondly, that inactive constructions do not have oblique subjects, but oblique first arguments (A1s). The meanings of the case forms nominative and oblique differ, depending on their constructional context. Any functional theory must respect the relevant grammatical sign contrasts of the language analysed, not try to explain them away.
AB - Typologically, the Old and Middle Scandinavian languages preserve features lost in Modern Scandinavian (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish), especially zero arguments and inactive constructions. Both phenomena present difficulties for the analysis of the Old and Middle Scandinavian languages as configurational, and generative linguists often choose a reductionist strategy, claiming that at the level of deep structure, configurational structure persists. Based on Middle Danish, my claim will be that zero arguments are semantically different from – and therefore cannot be reduced to – pronouns, and secondly, that inactive constructions do not have oblique subjects, but oblique first arguments (A1s). The meanings of the case forms nominative and oblique differ, depending on their constructional context. Any functional theory must respect the relevant grammatical sign contrasts of the language analysed, not try to explain them away.
KW - Faculty of Humanities
KW - configurational languages, non-configurational languages
KW - inactive constructions, transitive constructions
KW - zero arguments
KW - case
KW - word order
KW - semantic roles
KW - indexical meaning
KW - symbolic meaning
KW - oblique subjects
U2 - 10.1075/nowele.00058.hel
DO - 10.1075/nowele.00058.hel
M3 - Journal article
VL - 74
SP - 242
EP - 277
JO - NOWELE
JF - NOWELE
SN - 0108-8416
IS - 2
ER -
ID: 304587389