Höskuldur Thráinsson

The syntax of Icelandic

1. Introduction 2. Word order and clause structure 3. Order of elements within the phrases 4. Case, agreement, grammatical relations and thematic roles 5. Passives, middles and unaccusatives 6. Expletive constructions and clause structure 7. Fronting, focussing, extraposition and NP-shift 8. Finite and non-finite complements and adjuncts 9. Pronouns, reflexives and empty categories.

Studies in comparative Germanic syntax

0. Introduction H. Haider, S. Olsen, S. Vikner. 1. On the Origin of Sentential Arguments in German and Bengali J. Bayer. 2. A Unified Structural Representation of (Abstract) Case and Article. Evidence from Germanic G. Giusti. 3. Preposition Stranding and Resumptivity in West Germanic J. Hoekstra. 4. To Have to be Dative T. Hoekstra. 5. Case and Scrambling: D-Structure versus S-Structure H. de Hoop, W. Kosmeijer. 6. Agreement and Verb Morphology in Three Varieties of English R. Kayne. 7. Structural Case, Specifier-Head Relations, and the Case of Predicate NPs J. Maling, R. Sprouse. 8. Crossover Effects, Chain Formation, and Unambiguous Binding G. Muller. 9. Complex Predicates in Dutch and English A. Neeleman. 10. Pronouns, Anaphors and Case E. Reuland, T. Reinhart. 11. Object Movement and Verb Movement in Early Modern English I. Roberts. 12. Cross-Dialectal Variation in Swiss German: Doubling Verbs, Verb Projection Raising, Barrierhood, and LF Movement M. Schonenberger, Z. Penner. 13. On Agreement and Nominative Objects in Icelandic T. Taraldsen. Index.

ON AUXILIARIES, AUX AND VPS IN ICELANDIC

The original purpose of this paper was to investigate the properties of putative auxiliary verbs in Icelandic or to investigate whether there is in fact any distinction in Icelandic between auxiliary and non-auxiliary verbs.1 In this connection it turned out to be necessary to try to clarify the status of the VP in Icelandic, assess the evidence for a separate AUX (or INFL) node and do various types of basic descriptive spadework. As a result, the paper is perhaps more descriptive than theoretical.

The Icelandic (Pilot) Project in ScanDiaSyn

In this paper we outline the Icelandic research plans in the Scandinavian Dialect Syntax project and explain why we have made these plans the way we have. We begin by reporting on a pilot project that was conducted in Iceland 2004-2005, explain its nature and describe the resulting plans. As will be seen, our research project includes the collection and analysis of spoken language corpora (“spontaneous speech” of different kinds), collection of syntactic material by using different elicitation techniques (including written questionnaires and interviews), and the comparison of this material. The spoken language corpora are listed and described in the second section of the paper. In the third section we describe how our present (and future) work relates to some previous work done on syntactic variation in Icelandic (and Faroese) and offer some thoughts on the nature of syntactic variation in general.

Looking for Parametric Correlations within Faroese

This paper first reviews some parameters that have been suggested to account for variation within Scandinavian, focussing for concreteness on the parameters proposed by Holmberg and Platzack (1995) and Bobaljik and Thrainsson (1998). As this review shows, Faroese is not as well behaved as the parametric approach to Scandinavian syntax would lead us to expect. In addition, the variation found within Faroese syntax is often gradient and not as categorical as the conventional parametric approach to variation would predict. Yet it can be shown that some of the correlations predicted by Holmberg and Platzack’s (1995) Agr Parameter and Bobaljik and Thrainsson’s (1998) Split IP Parameter are found in Faroese syntax and they are turn out to be statistically significant. In the final section it is argued that to account for facts of this sort we need to revise our ideas about parametric variation, language acquisition and the nature of internalized grammars — and that this will be necessary regardless of what we think of the particular formulation of parameters assumed by Holmberg and Platzack on the one hand and Bobaljik and Thrainsson on the other.

Faroese. A Language Course for Beginners

Jonathan Adams and Hjalmar P. Petersen. 2009. Faroese. A Language Course for Beginners. Textbook. Stiðin, Torshavn.. xiv + 400 pages. (A cd is included) Hjalmar P. Petersen and Jonathan Adams. Faroese. A Language course for Beginners. Grammar. Stiðin, Torshavn. xiv + 303 pages