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 Thráinsson (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 Thráinsson’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 Thráinsson on the other

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

Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language.   This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure &nbsp

Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language.   This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure &nbsp

Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language.   This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure &nbsp

Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language.   This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure &nbsp

Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language.   This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure &nbsp

Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language.   This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure &nbsp

Order and structure in syntax II: Subjecthood and argument structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language.   This book is complemented by Order and structure in syntax I: Word order and syntactic structure &nbsp