Startseite Linguistik & Semiotik Topicality in Icelandic: Null Arguments and Narrative Inversion
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Topicality in Icelandic: Null Arguments and Narrative Inversion

  • Halldór Ármann Sigurðsson
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Architecture of Topic
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Architecture of Topic

Abstract

This paper discusses topicality in Icelandic grammar as realized in several phenomena: referential third person pro drop in Old Icelandic, diverse types of topic drop in Old and Modern Icelandic, and Narrative Inversion (declarative VS clauses), also in both Old and Modern Icelandic. These phenomena all involve aboutness topics, given topics or both, thus showing that distinct types of topicality are active in Icelandic. However, in contrast to Italian, Icelandic does not provide evidence that different topic types have different structural correlates, a fact that suggests that topicality types are not generally structuralized in language (while not excluding that a topicality hierarchy may be PF-licensed by externalization properties specific to languages like Italian). Topicality is presumably a universally available category or phenomenon, but it is plausibly an interface third factor phenomenon (in the sense of Chomsky 2005), not provided by Universal Grammar but interacting with it in the shaping of externalized grammar, differently so in different languages.

Abstract

This paper discusses topicality in Icelandic grammar as realized in several phenomena: referential third person pro drop in Old Icelandic, diverse types of topic drop in Old and Modern Icelandic, and Narrative Inversion (declarative VS clauses), also in both Old and Modern Icelandic. These phenomena all involve aboutness topics, given topics or both, thus showing that distinct types of topicality are active in Icelandic. However, in contrast to Italian, Icelandic does not provide evidence that different topic types have different structural correlates, a fact that suggests that topicality types are not generally structuralized in language (while not excluding that a topicality hierarchy may be PF-licensed by externalization properties specific to languages like Italian). Topicality is presumably a universally available category or phenomenon, but it is plausibly an interface third factor phenomenon (in the sense of Chomsky 2005), not provided by Universal Grammar but interacting with it in the shaping of externalized grammar, differently so in different languages.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Contents IX
  4. Exploring the Architecture of Topic at the Interface of Grammar and Discourse 1
  5. Part I: Semantic and Discourse-pragmatic Correlates of Topicality
  6. Topics and Givenness 47
  7. The Role of Topics in Licensing Anaphoric Relations in VP-ellipsis 67
  8. Topic Marking and Illocutionary Force 95
  9. Topics, Conversational Dynamics and the Root/Non-root Distinction: Adverbial Clauses at the Discourse-syntax Interface 139
  10. Part II: Variation in the Grammatical Encoding of Topicality: Clause-internal, Clause-external and Null Topics
  11. Why Topicalize VP? 173
  12. Information-structural Constraints on PP Topicalization from NPs 203
  13. Stage Topics and their Architecture 223
  14. Topicality in Icelandic: Null Arguments and Narrative Inversion 249
  15. Apropos the Topic 273
  16. Discourse Topic vs. Sentence Topic Exploiting the Right Periphery of German Verb-second Sentences 293
  17. PART III: Topics from the Diachronic Perspective
  18. Topichood and the Margins of the German Clause from a Historical Perspective 337
  19. Stylistic Fronting at the Interface of Syntax and Discourse 373
  20. Index 425
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501504488-009

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Contents IX
  4. Exploring the Architecture of Topic at the Interface of Grammar and Discourse 1
  5. Part I: Semantic and Discourse-pragmatic Correlates of Topicality
  6. Topics and Givenness 47
  7. The Role of Topics in Licensing Anaphoric Relations in VP-ellipsis 67
  8. Topic Marking and Illocutionary Force 95
  9. Topics, Conversational Dynamics and the Root/Non-root Distinction: Adverbial Clauses at the Discourse-syntax Interface 139
  10. Part II: Variation in the Grammatical Encoding of Topicality: Clause-internal, Clause-external and Null Topics
  11. Why Topicalize VP? 173
  12. Information-structural Constraints on PP Topicalization from NPs 203
  13. Stage Topics and their Architecture 223
  14. Topicality in Icelandic: Null Arguments and Narrative Inversion 249
  15. Apropos the Topic 273
  16. Discourse Topic vs. Sentence Topic Exploiting the Right Periphery of German Verb-second Sentences 293
  17. PART III: Topics from the Diachronic Perspective
  18. Topichood and the Margins of the German Clause from a Historical Perspective 337
  19. Stylistic Fronting at the Interface of Syntax and Discourse 373
  20. Index 425
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Heruntergeladen am 21.11.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781501504488-009/html
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