Agreement

[Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen]

Can anyone help me with information on languages with a change in 
agreement controller, seemingly depending on discourse status? In 
spoken Danish, but also in written Danish used in chat rooms and 
e-mails, you find now the following type of construction:

dem er jeg vild-e med
those am I crazy-PL about
'I am crazy about those ones'

and also:

jeg er vild-e med dem
I am crazy-PL about those

It seems that agreement with the preposition complement depends on its 
being focused. In the standard language the predicative adjective 
_vild_ 'crazy' agrees with the subject:

jeg er vild med dem
I am crazy-SG about those

vi er vild-e med it
we are crazy-PL about that

Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen




Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen
Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics
University of Copenhagen
Njalsgade 120
DK-2300  Copenhagen S.
Denmark
#45 35328664
eep at hum.ku.dk