Þórhallur Eyþórsson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3592374 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Þórhallur Eyþórsson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Þórhallur |
| FAMILY NAME | Eyþórsson |
| SIGNATURE | EYÞÓRSSON Þ |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Iceland |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1160-7524 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 28 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
In defense of a language error
The verb valda ‘cause’ in Icelandic standardly has the past participle/supine valdið, but an alternative form is ollið (ollað). This verb governs dative case with objects, which is preserved in passive in standard Icelandic. However, in a few examples, nominative is found instead, in which case an inflected form of the participle shows up (ollnar), agreeing with the nominative sub-ject of the passive clause. Such instances can be understood on th…
How to Identify Cognates in Syntax? Taking Watkins’ Legacy One Step Further
As a reaction to three different proposals on how to reconstruct basic word order for Proto-Indo-European, Watkins and his contemporaries in the 1970s succeeded in aborting any attempt at reconstructing syntax for a long time to come. As a consequence, syntactic reconstruction has generally been abandoned, regarded as a doomed enterprise by historical linguists for several different reasons, one of which is the alleged difficulty in identifying c…
The alternating predicate puzzle: Dat-nom vs. nom-dat in Icelandic and German
A long-standing divide between Icelandic and German in the literature takes for granted that there are non-nominative subjects in Icelandic, while corresponding arguments in German have been analyzed as objects ( Zaenen et al. 1985 ; Sigurðsson 1989 ). This is based on two differences between these languages: (a) differences with regard to control and conjunction reduction and (b) apparent subject behavior of the nominative in dat - nom construct…
Dative sickness: A phylogenetic analysis of argument structure evolution in Germanic
A major argument against the feasibility of reconstructing syntax for proto-stages is the widely discussed lack of directionality of syntactic change. In a recent typology of changes in argument structure constructions based on Germanic (Barodal 2015), several different, yet opposing, changes are reported. These include, among others, processes sometimes called dative sickness, nominative sickness, and accusative sickness. In order to tease apart…
Semantic and (morpho)syntactic constraints on anticausativization: Evidence from Latin and Old Norse-Icelandic
The diachrony of valency patterns is generally an understudied phenomenon. The present article investigates anticausativization from a diachronic perspective, highlighting the parameters determining the morphosyntactic encoding of this type of intransitivization in two early Western Indo-European languages, Latin and Old Norse-Icelandic. It is shown that the structural and lexical aspects of a verb’s meaning and their interplay with the inherent …
‘Hungering and Lusting for Women and Fleshly Delicacies’: Reconstructing Grammatical Relations for Proto‐Germanic
Syntactic reconstruction has long been virtually outlawed in historical‐comparative research, more or less ever since Watkins’s influential works on the problems of reconstructing word order for Proto‐Indo‐European. Recently, through the emergence of Construction Grammar, where complex syntactic structures are regarded as form–function pairings, a resurgence of syntactic reconstruction is made possible, as complex syntactic structures become a le…
Dative case in Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese: Preservation and non-preservation
This article investigates the morphosyntactic status of dative case in Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. We hypothesize that these three languages represent three diachronic stages signalled synchronically by the degree of preservation or non-preservation of dative under movement. Thus, we explore the synchronic status of dative under passive movement and topicalization in the three languages, while simultaneously paying attention to the larger …
The origin of the oblique-subject construction: An Indo-European comparison
Recent research on subject-like obliques in Germanic suggests that noncanonically-case-marked subject-like arguments behave syntactically as subjects not only in Modern Icelandic and Modern Faroese, but also in Modern German, Old Norse-Icelandic, Old Swedish and Early Middle English. This research calls into question the hypothesis that oblique or nonnominative subjects have developed from objects, as it suggests that they have been subjects from…
Grammatical change and linguistic theory: The Rosendal papers
The new passive in Icelandic really is a passive
Control infinitives and case in Germanic: ‘Performance error’ or marginally acceptable constructions?
Variation in subject case marking in Insular Scandinavian
The Insular Scandinavian (IS) languages, Icelandic and Faroese, exhibit variation in subject case marking, primarily pertaining to an older idiosyncratic case and an innovative case that instantiates a regular pattern. This variation occurs to a considerable degree at the level of the individual speaker. We argue that this intra-speaker variation in IS involves optionality within one grammar and not competition between two different grammars or d…
Oblique Subjects: A Common Germanic Inheritance
We argue that subject-like obliques of the impersonal construction show behavioral properties of syntactic subjects in Old Germanic, contrary to standard assumptions (Cole et al. 1980). Subject tests, including control infinitives, reveal that subject-like obliques in Old and Early Middle English, Old Swedish, and Old Norse-Icelandic exhibit behavioral properties of subjects, as they do in Modern Icelandic and Faroese. We also present new data fr…
Auxiliary selection and the semantics of unaccusativity
The change that never happened: The story of oblique subjects
This paper contributes to an ongoing debate on the syntactic status of oblique subject-like NPs in the ‘impersonal’ construction (of the type me-thinks ) in Old Germanic. The debate is caused by the lack of canonical subject case marking in such NPs. It has been argued that these NPs are syntactic objects, but we provide evidence for their subject status, as in Modern Icelandic and Faroese. Thus, we argue that the syntactic status of the oblique …
Negation in C: The Syntax of Negated Verbs in Old Norse
The syntax of finite verbs with the negation suffix - a/-at in early Old Norse reveals an asymmetry regarding the position of the verb relative to the subject in main clauses. The subject is regularly preceded by the negated verb, but followed by the verb in affirmative clauses. The asymmetry suggests that the subject is canonically in SpecIP. In affirmative subject-initial main clauses the finite verb moves to I, but the negated verbs obligatori…
Verb-erst-Deklarativsatze: Grammatik und Pragmatik
Investigation of the Origin of the Old Norse or Icelandic Language
Functional Categories, Cliticization, and Verb Movement in the Early Germanic Languages
Auxiliary selection and the semantics of unaccusativity
The change that never happened: The story of oblique subjects
This paper contributes to an ongoing debate on the syntactic status of oblique subject-like NPs in the ‘impersonal’ construction (of the type me-thinks ) in Old Germanic. The debate is caused by the lack of canonical subject case marking in such NPs. It has been argued that these NPs are syntactic objects, but we provide evidence for their subject status, as in Modern Icelandic and Faroese. Thus, we argue that the syntactic status of the oblique …
Oblique Subjects: A Common Germanic Inheritance
We argue that subject-like obliques of the impersonal construction show behavioral properties of syntactic subjects in Old Germanic, contrary to standard assumptions (Cole et al. 1980). Subject tests, including control infinitives, reveal that subject-like obliques in Old and Early Middle English, Old Swedish, and Old Norse-Icelandic exhibit behavioral properties of subjects, as they do in Modern Icelandic and Faroese. We also present new data fr…
Dative sickness: A phylogenetic analysis of argument structure evolution in Germanic
A major argument against the feasibility of reconstructing syntax for proto-stages is the widely discussed lack of directionality of syntactic change. In a recent typology of changes in argument structure constructions based on Germanic (Barodal 2015), several different, yet opposing, changes are reported. These include, among others, processes sometimes called dative sickness, nominative sickness, and accusative sickness. In order to tease apart…
Functional Categories, Cliticization, and Verb Movement in the Early Germanic Languages
Investigation of the Origin of the Old Norse or Icelandic Language
Verb-erst-Deklarativsatze: Grammatik und Pragmatik
Negation in C: The Syntax of Negated Verbs in Old Norse
The syntax of finite verbs with the negation suffix - a/-at in early Old Norse reveals an asymmetry regarding the position of the verb relative to the subject in main clauses. The subject is regularly preceded by the negated verb, but followed by the verb in affirmative clauses. The asymmetry suggests that the subject is canonically in SpecIP. In affirmative subject-initial main clauses the finite verb moves to I, but the negated verbs obligatori…
The change that never happened: The story of oblique subjects
This paper contributes to an ongoing debate on the syntactic status of oblique subject-like NPs in the ‘impersonal’ construction (of the type me-thinks ) in Old Germanic. The debate is caused by the lack of canonical subject case marking in such NPs. It has been argued that these NPs are syntactic objects, but we provide evidence for their subject status, as in Modern Icelandic and Faroese. Thus, we argue that the syntactic status of the oblique …
Auxiliary selection and the semantics of unaccusativity
Variation in subject case marking in Insular Scandinavian
The Insular Scandinavian (IS) languages, Icelandic and Faroese, exhibit variation in subject case marking, primarily pertaining to an older idiosyncratic case and an innovative case that instantiates a regular pattern. This variation occurs to a considerable degree at the level of the individual speaker. We argue that this intra-speaker variation in IS involves optionality within one grammar and not competition between two different grammars or d…
Oblique Subjects: A Common Germanic Inheritance
We argue that subject-like obliques of the impersonal construction show behavioral properties of syntactic subjects in Old Germanic, contrary to standard assumptions (Cole et al. 1980). Subject tests, including control infinitives, reveal that subject-like obliques in Old and Early Middle English, Old Swedish, and Old Norse-Icelandic exhibit behavioral properties of subjects, as they do in Modern Icelandic and Faroese. We also present new data fr…
Control infinitives and case in Germanic: ‘Performance error’ or marginally acceptable constructions?
Grammatical change and linguistic theory: The Rosendal papers
The new passive in Icelandic really is a passive
The origin of the oblique-subject construction: An Indo-European comparison
Recent research on subject-like obliques in Germanic suggests that noncanonically-case-marked subject-like arguments behave syntactically as subjects not only in Modern Icelandic and Modern Faroese, but also in Modern German, Old Norse-Icelandic, Old Swedish and Early Middle English. This research calls into question the hypothesis that oblique or nonnominative subjects have developed from objects, as it suggests that they have been subjects from…
‘Hungering and Lusting for Women and Fleshly Delicacies’: Reconstructing Grammatical Relations for Proto‐Germanic
Syntactic reconstruction has long been virtually outlawed in historical‐comparative research, more or less ever since Watkins’s influential works on the problems of reconstructing word order for Proto‐Indo‐European. Recently, through the emergence of Construction Grammar, where complex syntactic structures are regarded as form–function pairings, a resurgence of syntactic reconstruction is made possible, as complex syntactic structures become a le…
Dative case in Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese: Preservation and non-preservation
This article investigates the morphosyntactic status of dative case in Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese. We hypothesize that these three languages represent three diachronic stages signalled synchronically by the degree of preservation or non-preservation of dative under movement. Thus, we explore the synchronic status of dative under passive movement and topicalization in the three languages, while simultaneously paying attention to the larger …
Semantic and (morpho)syntactic constraints on anticausativization: Evidence from Latin and Old Norse-Icelandic
The diachrony of valency patterns is generally an understudied phenomenon. The present article investigates anticausativization from a diachronic perspective, highlighting the parameters determining the morphosyntactic encoding of this type of intransitivization in two early Western Indo-European languages, Latin and Old Norse-Icelandic. It is shown that the structural and lexical aspects of a verb’s meaning and their interplay with the inherent …
Dative sickness: A phylogenetic analysis of argument structure evolution in Germanic
A major argument against the feasibility of reconstructing syntax for proto-stages is the widely discussed lack of directionality of syntactic change. In a recent typology of changes in argument structure constructions based on Germanic (Barodal 2015), several different, yet opposing, changes are reported. These include, among others, processes sometimes called dative sickness, nominative sickness, and accusative sickness. In order to tease apart…
The alternating predicate puzzle: Dat-nom vs. nom-dat in Icelandic and German
A long-standing divide between Icelandic and German in the literature takes for granted that there are non-nominative subjects in Icelandic, while corresponding arguments in German have been analyzed as objects ( Zaenen et al. 1985 ; Sigurðsson 1989 ). This is based on two differences between these languages: (a) differences with regard to control and conjunction reduction and (b) apparent subject behavior of the nominative in dat - nom construct…
How to Identify Cognates in Syntax? Taking Watkins’ Legacy One Step Further
As a reaction to three different proposals on how to reconstruct basic word order for Proto-Indo-European, Watkins and his contemporaries in the 1970s succeeded in aborting any attempt at reconstructing syntax for a long time to come. As a consequence, syntactic reconstruction has generally been abandoned, regarded as a doomed enterprise by historical linguists for several different reasons, one of which is the alleged difficulty in identifying c…
In defense of a language error
The verb valda ‘cause’ in Icelandic standardly has the past participle/supine valdið, but an alternative form is ollið (ollað). This verb governs dative case with objects, which is preserved in passive in standard Icelandic. However, in a few examples, nominative is found instead, in which case an inflected form of the participle shows up (ollnar), agreeing with the nominative sub-ject of the passive clause. Such instances can be understood on th…
Linguistics (19 works) · Philosophy (19 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (16 works) · Linguistics and language evolution (15 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (11 works) · Verb (10 works) · History (9 works) · Icelandic (9 works) · German (6 works)