The typology of Old Norse revisited

The case of Middle Danish

Bibliographic Data

ID22302555
AuthorsLars Heltoft (0000-0003-2085-8322, University of Copenhagen, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume74
Issue2
Pages242-277
Publication date2021-11-18
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNOWELE. North-Western European Language Evolution (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0108-8416 • E-ISSN: 2212-9715
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/nowele.00058.hel
OpenAlexW3216162890
LanguageEN
References cited15

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

Anaphora (linguistics) · Context (archaeology) · Danish · Generative grammar · Grammar · Grammaticality · Linguistics · Nominative case · Norwegian · Oblique case · Sign (mathematics) · Sociology · Syntax · Typology · Variation (astronomy) · Verb · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and language evolution · Mathematics · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

Tools

Open DOI