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The Scandinavian languages and the null-subject parameter

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Conclusion

The null-subject parameter divides the Scandinavian languages in two groups. On the one hand, we find Icelandic and Faroese, which can have null-subjects with dummy interpretation in tensed clauses. On the other hand, we have Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, where null-subjects are not found in tensed clauses. Certain other constructions are shown to presuppose a grammar permitting [+pronoun] heads of S: subject-verb-agreement, expletive pronoun base generated inXmax, oblique subjects, Stylistic Fronting, violation of thethat-trace filter, and Heavy Subject Postposing. Hence, it is in accordance with our expectations that these constructions are found in Icelandic and Faroese,Footnote1 but not in modern Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish. On the other hand, at least one mainland dialect, as well as medieval Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, can have null-subjects in tensed clauses, and, as expected, we find the grammatical constructions related to a [+pronoun] marking of COMP in these languages as well.

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Notes

  1. As indicated in the text, Faroese does not have these constructions to the same degree as Icelandic. Having noticed this, Barnes (1986) suggests that in respect of the null-subject parameter, Faroese is now at roughly the same stage of development as seventeenth-century Swedish.

Abbreviations

NELS::

Papers from the annual meetings of the North Eastern Linguistic Society.

WPSS::

Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax, Linguistic Department, University of Trondheim.

NLLT::

Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institutionen för Nordiska Spr»k, Universitetet i Lund, Helgonabacken 14, 223 62, Lund, Sweden

    Christer Platzack

Authors
  1. Christer Platzack

Additional information

An earlier version of this paper was read at the Workshop on Comparative Germanic Syntax, Reykjavík, June 1985, and published as WPSS 20. I would like to thank those who commented on the paper on that occasion. Thanks also to Tor Åfarli, Michael Barnes, Alan Ċrozier, Lena Ekberg, Elisabet Engdahl, Cecilia Falk, Frank Heny, Anders Holmberg, Richard Kayne, Joan Maling, Halldór Sigurðsson and three anonymous referees for this journal, for valuable comments and suggestions. I would also like to thank my informants: Lars Brink (Danish), Karolina Hansen and Poul Poulsen (Faroese), Halldór Sigurðsson (Icelandic) and Per Ivar Vaagland (Norwegian). None of these persons can be held responsible for the ways I have interpreted their intuitions and suggestions.

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