On the internal and external syntax of adverbial clauses in Faroese:Causal and temporal clauses

Recent and current research into the syntax of adverbial clauses has been investigating their external syntax (in particular where they attach to their host clause), their internal syntax (in particular whether or not they exhibit certain “root phenomena,” including V2), and how these two aspects may be connected. This paper investigates how some of these issues play out in causal and temporal adverbial clauses in Faroese. We draw on existing work on causal clauses in Icelandic, and demonstrate that Faroese also exhibits a correlation between attachment site, type of causal interpretation, and the possibility of argument fronting within the adverbial clause. We then turn to temporal clauses to investigate the hypothesis that the constraints on argument fronting are due toA′-movement within the adverbial clause. We show that there is positive evidence for the existence of such A′-movement only in a subset of temporal clauses (extending observations that have been made for other languages), posing a challenge for the intervention account of this restriction in adverbial clauses

On the relative order of central sentence adverbs in the Insular Scandinavian languages

This paper discusses the relative order of certain classes of central sentence adverbs in Icelandic and Faroese. The relative order of the logical subject and central sentence adverbs in double subject constructions is also taken under consideration. The questionnaire data shows that the relative orders of adverbs that follow Cinque’s (1999) hierarchy receive more positive judgments than the orders that do not exhibit the predicted patterns in both languages, but the contrasts are not always as striking as one might expect. Examples of three adverbs within the same clause get rather negative judgments in general, but in case such orders are accepted the judgments are also in accordance with Cinque’s (1999) hierarchy. In double subject constructions, however, the sentence adverbs usually must precede the logical subject in Faroese while in Icelandic both orders are fine for most speakers. This is consistent with recent research showing that adverb placement is somewhat less free in Faroese than in Icelandic.Peer Reviewe

Subordinate V2 and Verbal Morphology in Övdalian

The purpose of this paper is (i) to locate Övdalian among the Scandinavian languages with regard to verbal morphology and embedded V2, and (ii) to formalize and test hypotheses predicting that languages/dialects that have the relevant morphological differences also show certain syntactic differences. It turns out that the older speakers of Övdalian allow Vfin-Adv order in various types of subject-initial clauses more freely than the younger speakers. The results from a verbal paradigm fill-in task reveal substantial variation in the use of verbal affixes and, interestingly, a tendency, especially by the younger speakers, to simplify the verbal morphology. The relevance of these results for different versions of the so-called Rich Agreement Hypothesis is discussed in the paper (see Koeneman and Zeijlstra 2014 and references there). In short, it is maintained that two kinds of V2-order can be found in Övdalian embedded clauses. On the one hand there is V-to-C and hence there is clear evidence that assertion plays a role in the distribution of V2-order in subject-initial complement clauses. But embedded V2-order in Övdalian cannot be attributed to Vto-C alone since they are also accepted, by some speakers at least, in clauses where Embedded Topicalization is completely impossible, such as relative clauses and indirect questions (clauses that have no root properties). This suggests that V-to-I is also a possibility in Övdalian. Some versions of the Rich Agreement Hypothesis would then predict that Transitive Expletives Constructions should also be possible in Övdalian but this prediction is not borne out.Peer Reviewe

The distribution of embedded V2 and V3 in modern Icelandic

This paper aims at giving a comprehensive and current overview of the key empirical facts regarding embedded V2 and V3 in Icelandic, including age-related variation, and to compare this to what has been shown for other Scandinavian varieties. It is shown that Icelandic is a robust symmetric V2-language, meaning that it exhibits V2 as the default worder order both in matrix and subordinate clauses. In general, preposing is easier in matrix clauses than in subordinate clauses, with the exception of Stylistic Fronting (SF) which is more easily applicable in embedded contexts. As discussed in the paper, recent research has shown that the simple typological picture of the late 1990s is in reality much more articulated, in particular with respect to age-related variation. The fact that younger speakers of Icelandic do not accept embedded topicalization and SF as much as older speakers could be interpreted as an ‘ongoing change’ in Icelandic. However, it must be taken into account that these constructions are more common in the written language and in a formal style of speech. If the results regarding V3 in Icelandic are taken to indicate an ‘ongoing change’, then there are two changes that must be recognized: In relative clauses the conditions for V3 are reminiscent of the conditions for Topicalization and SF (less accepted by younger people), while in complement-clauses V3 is more accepted by younger people than older (innovation).Peer Reviewe

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

Stílførsla og sagnorðspláss í høvuðssetningum í íslendskum og føroyskum

Endamálið við hesi grein er tvíbýtt. Øðrumegin er tað at útvega eitt yvirlit yvir setningsgerðir við S1 (sagnorð-eitt), S2 (sagnorð-tvey) og S3 (sagnorð-trý) í høvuðssetningum í íslendskum og føroyskum, og roynt verður at kanna, í hvussu stóran mun tey bæði nær skyldu málini bera seg at á sama hátt í hesum sambandi. Dáturnar, ið verða lagdar fram her, stuðla hugsanini, at íslendskt og føroyskt hava líkar setningsgerðir við atliti at møguleikum fyri S1 og S3. Hinvegin verður víst á nøkur áhugaverd undantøk, serliga í sambandi við at hava negativ ávirki fremst í føroyskum (S3). Hinumegin verður serliga hugt at møguleikum fyri stílførslu sum S2-fyribrigdi í høvuðssetningum í íslendskum og føroyskum. Ført hevur verið fram, at stílførsla er meira avmarkað í eykasetningum í føroyskum enn hon er í íslendskum. Tað skuldi tí bent á, at føroyskt mennir seg sama veg sum danskt, norskt og svenskt, har ið stílførsla er um at vera púra burtur. Við støði í tí skuldi væntast, at stílførsla eisini er á veg út í høvuðssetningum. Samanberingar av stílførdum eindum av ymsum slag fremst í setningi, sum eru gjørdar í hesi kanning, vísa, at bæði málini geva seg undir avmarkingar av sama slag. Tó eru ávísar setningsgerðir við stílførslu munandi meira avmarkaðar í føroyskum enn í íslendskum.The goal of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, it provides an overview of V1 (verb-first), V2 (verb-second), and V3 (verb-third) constructions in main clauses in Icelandic and Faroese, and it seeks to explore to what extent the two closely related languages behave the same way in that resepect. The data presented here support the idea that Icelandic and Faroese have similar conditions with respect to the possibility of V1 and V3. However, some interesting exceptions are pointed out, in particular regarding the fronting of negative objects in Faroese (V3). On the other hand, special attention is given to the possibility of Stylistic Fronting (SF) as a matrix V2-phenomenon in the Insular Scandinavian languages. It has been claimed that SF is more restricted in embedded clauses in Faroese than it is in Icelandic, suggesting that Faroese is evolving in the direction of the Mainland Scandinavian languages, where SF has all but disappeared. Based on that, one might expect that SF is also on its way out in main clauses. The comparison of stylistically fronted elements of various kinds conducted in this study shows that both languages obey similar restrictions. However, certain SF-constructions are much more restricted in Faroese than in Icelandic.Peer Reviewe

Linguistic proficiency as cultural capital in school environments

The main concern of this paper is the extent to which students’ expec-tations of first language studies reflect the idea that linguistic proficiency produces social and cultural capital (Bourdieu 2008 and earli-er work). The participants consisted of 14 focus groups of students in secondary schools in Iceland. Most of the students believe it is desirable to acquire fluency in reading and formal writing. In their view, however, the amount of time devoted to traditional school grammar is actually a detriment to that goal. Furthermore, the students think that success in Icelandic as a school subject depends to some extent on reading habits and language instruction at home. These views support the idea that schools tend to reward their students for knowledge and skills that are not necessarily highlighted in the class-room but which can be viewed as advantageous due to systematic cultural reproduction within families and social networks.Peer Reviewe

Sameiginleg skynjun undirmeðvitundar

Markmið þessarar ritgerðar er að tengja saman þrennskonar fræði sem heilla mig á persónulegu stigi sem og listrænu. Í stuttu máli mun ég fjalla um undirmeðvitundina og myndmál sem telst sameiginlegt með mannkyni. Þetta myndmál er ekki bara sprottið uppfrá einni vissri menningu eða hugarfari heldur er einmitt talið eiga sér rætur í undirmeðvitundinni. Þær fræðigreinar sem ég hyggst tengja saman eru rannsóknir svissneska sálfræðingsins Carl Gustav Jung ( 1875 – 1961 ) ásamt útskýringum Joseph Campbell ( 1904 – 1987 ) á goðsögulegu myndmáli. Að lokum sýni ég fram á hvernig heilög geómetría tengist þessu myndmáli. Í fyrri helming ritgerðar verður skýrt frá svokölluðum erkitýpum. þessar erkitýpur eru fyrirbæri sem Carl Jung rannsakaði og þróaði aðferðafræði útfrá þeim varðandi sálgreiningu á einstaklingum. Bæði fer ég yfir þessar kenningar hans og einnig aðferðafræði og sýni fram á tengingu þeirra við almenna sálfræði. Í seinni hluta fer ég nánar í myndmál sem nýtir sér þekkingu okkar á undirmeðvitundinni og þessum erkitýpum, eða í stuttu máli hvernig myndmál er notað til að miðla þessari hugmyndafræði. Meginmál skiptist því í þrjá kafla; erkitýpur Jung og tenging þeirra við sálfræði. Erkitýpurnar í myndmáli og goðsögulegu formi en þar tek ég sérstaklega fyrir kjarnann í algengum goðsögum. Því næst tengi ég heilaga geómetríu við ofangreint myndmál. Í niðurlagi fer ég yfir minn eigin skilning á efninu