Recasting Danish subjects
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Lars Heltoft
Abstract
The present article is an attempt to construct a scenario for the typological change of the subject in the Scandinavian languages, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, from nominative subjects to categorical subjects. This change must and will be seen in the context of the rise of the so-called subordinate clause word order. Most of the material will be taken from three stages of Danish. In addition to Modern Danish, the 13th century is represented by the language of the Scanic Law and the mid 15th century by the Danish Lucidarius.
The background is the Copenhagen version of functional grammar, as presented by the papers in Engberg-Pedersen et al. (1996), and the topological theory of Paul Diderichsen (1941, 1943). No specific knowledge of these traditions is presupposed.
Abstract
The present article is an attempt to construct a scenario for the typological change of the subject in the Scandinavian languages, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, from nominative subjects to categorical subjects. This change must and will be seen in the context of the rise of the so-called subordinate clause word order. Most of the material will be taken from three stages of Danish. In addition to Modern Danish, the 13th century is represented by the language of the Scanic Law and the mid 15th century by the Danish Lucidarius.
The background is the Copenhagen version of functional grammar, as presented by the papers in Engberg-Pedersen et al. (1996), and the topological theory of Paul Diderichsen (1941, 1943). No specific knowledge of these traditions is presupposed.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction 1
- How far does semantic bleaching go 15
- ‘Oblique subjects’, structural and lexical case marking 65
- The notion of oblique subject and its status in the history of Icelandic 99
- Towards personal subjects in English 137
- Focus and universal principles governing simplification of cleft structures 159
- Recasting Danish subjects 171
- Ergative to accusative 205
- Subject and object in Old English and Latin copular deontics 223
- The loss of lexical case in Swedish 241
- The coding of the subject–object distinction from Latin to Modern French 273
- Changes in Popolocan word order and clause structure 303
- Index 323
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction 1
- How far does semantic bleaching go 15
- ‘Oblique subjects’, structural and lexical case marking 65
- The notion of oblique subject and its status in the history of Icelandic 99
- Towards personal subjects in English 137
- Focus and universal principles governing simplification of cleft structures 159
- Recasting Danish subjects 171
- Ergative to accusative 205
- Subject and object in Old English and Latin copular deontics 223
- The loss of lexical case in Swedish 241
- The coding of the subject–object distinction from Latin to Modern French 273
- Changes in Popolocan word order and clause structure 303
- Index 323
