Conditions on argument drop

This article pursues the idea that null arguments are derived without any statement or parameter, instead following "naturally" from 3rd factor principles and effects (in the sense of Chomsky 2005). The article thus contributes to the program of eliminating statements in grammar in favor of general factors. More specifically, it develops a theory of C/edge linking in terms of syntactically active but silent C-features, where all referential definite arguments, overt and silent, must match these features in order to be successfully C/edge-linked (interpreted). On the approach pursued, radically silent arguments-such as Germanic zero topics and controlled 3rd person null subjects in Finnish-commonly raise across a lexical C (a complementizer or a verb-second (V2) verb) into the edge of the C-domain for the purpose of successful C/edge linking (circumventing C-intervention), thereby showing (A) over bar -behavior not observed for other types of arguments (including the Romance type of pro). Silent arguments are universally available in syntax, whereas their C/edge linking is constrained by factors (such as Germanic V2) that may or may not be present or active in individual languages and constructions

On the New Passive

The so-called New Passive in Icelandic takes the form 'it was elected us' (or, e.g., 'then was elected us', without an expletive), instead of the standard passive form 'we were elected'. It has neither A-movement to subject nor acc-to-nom conversion, which are otherwise diagnostic of the canonical passive in Icelandic and related languages. Some researchers have argued that "passive" is in fact a misnomer and that the construction should instead be analyzed as an active one, with a nominative pro. This paper argues instead in favor of a minimalist analysis, where the New Passive is closely related to the impersonal P passive (with a PP, type 'then was shouted at us'), which is highly common and productive in Icelandic. On the approach pursued, acc-to-nom conversion involves case-star deletion, absent from the New Passive (much as from so-called psych and fate (un)accusatives in standard Icelandic). Additionally, the New Passive has a strong vP phase edge, blocking A-movement, in contrast to the defective vP edge in the canonical passive. The paper argues that A-grounding or "freezing" is brought about by phi-minimality, A-islands thus arising in a parallel fashion with A'-islands

Stylistic Fronting in corpora

Stylistic Fronting (SF) is a process that fronts various types of non-subjects to the preverbal position in subjectless clauses (“that gone have”, etc.). With the exception of Icelandic and to some extent Faroese, SF has disappeared from Scandinavian varieties. It is commonly assumed that even in Icelandic it is formal and old fashioned, indicating that it might be on its way out of this language as well. However, this has not been substantiated or supported by frequency surveys in large written language corpora. This paper studies the distribution and frequency of Stylistic Fronting in two such corpora, Timarit.is and the World Wide Web, across two distinct SF domains: Subject relatives and subjectless impersonal (mostly adverbial) clauses. The survey yields support to the common assumption that SF is on the retreat. In relative clauses verb-initial order (V1) seems to be on the increase at the expense of SF, whereas it is expletive það ‘there, it’ insertion that is on the increase in impersonal clauses. Nevertheless, the survey also highlights that both these changes proceed slowly. SF still has a strong foothold in everyday written Icelandic, in particular in certain impersonal clause types. Also V1 is quite natural in some impersonal clauses, suggesting that filling the left edge of CP is not a strict syntactic requirement but rather an externalization or performance target, a commonly desirable PF goal, as it were. An extra methodological result of the study is that it shows that Google Search may well be (carefully) used as a research tool in linguistics – no small an advantage

The split T analysis

This essay pursues The Split T Analysis, claiming that finite clauses have three syntactically active T heads, roughly corresponding to the Reichenbachian S, R, E: Speech Tense, TS, in the C-domain, Referential Tense, TR (or simply T) in the T-domain, and Event Tense, TE, in the v-domain. This analysis, it is argued, enables a coherent account of the relationship between tense morphology (including Tense Agreement) and Tense syntax (including Sequence of Tenses phenomena and Double Access Readings)