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In:Non-Canonically Case-Marked Subjects: The Reykjavík-Eyjafjallajökull papers
Edited by Jóhanna Barðdal, Na'ama Pat-El and Stephen Mark Carey
[Studies in Language Companion Series 200] 2018
► pp. 135–154

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Chapter 6
Word order as a subject test in Old Icelandic

 | University of Iceland
Published online: 2 November 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.200.06jon
Abstract
The main claim of this article is that word order can be used to diagnose subjecthood in Old Icelandic if the relative order of subjects and objects in clauses where both arguments follow the finite verb is examined. The subject always precedes the object in such cases unless (i) the object is moved by Pronominal Object Scrambling, (ii) the subject is moved by Heavy/Indefinite Subject Shift, or (iii) the object contains a reflexive possessive which precedes its binder, a distributive subject. This means that a pronominal subject will always precede an object following the finite verb. It is also shown that these facts strongly support the existence of oblique subjects in Old Icelandic since oblique subjects behave exactly like nominative subject in that they must precede objects under the same conditions as nominative subjects.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The position of subjects and objects in Modern Icelandic
  • 3.Subjects and objects in Old Icelandic
    • 3.1Neutral word order and topicalization
    • 3.2Pronominal object scrambling
    • 3.3Heavy/indefinite subject shift
    • 3.4The Distributive-Reflexive Construction (DRC)
  • 4.Oblique subjects
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Texts
References (41)
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Cited by one other publication

Barđdal, Jóhanna, Leonid Kulikov, Roland Pooth & Peter Alexander Kerkhof
2020. Oblique anticausatives: A morphosyntactic isogloss in Indo-European. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 56:3 ► pp. 413 ff. DOI logo

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