15.3046, Diss: Historical Ling: Hrafnbjargarson: 'Oblique...'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-15-3046. Tue Oct 26 2004. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 15.3046, Diss: Historical Ling: Hrafnbjargarson: 'Oblique...'                                                                                                                                                          

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1)
Date: 25-Oct-2004
From: Gunnar Hrafn Hrafnbjargarson < g.h.hrafnbjargarson at ilf.uio.no >
Subject: Oblique Subjects and Stylistic Fronting in the History of Scandinavian and English: The Role of IP-Spec 
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 18:16:58
From: Gunnar Hrafn Hrafnbjargarson < g.h.hrafnbjargarson at ilf.uio.no >
Subject: Oblique Subjects and Stylistic Fronting in the History of Scandinavian and English: The Role of IP-Spec  
 
Institution: University of Aarhus
Program: Scandinavian Institute 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2004 

Author: Gunnar Hrafn Hrafnbjargarson

Dissertation Title: Oblique Subjects and Stylistic Fronting in the History of
Scandinavian and English: The Role of IP-Spec 

Dissertation URL: http://folk.uio.no/gunnahh/phd/

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics; Syntax 

Subject Language(s):
Danish (Code: DNS) 
English (Code: ENG) 
Icelandic (Code: ICE) 

Language Family(ies):
North Germanic 

Dissertation Director(s):
Sten Vikner
Henrik Jørgensen

Dissertation Abstract:

The central issue that is discussed in this study is the morphosyntactic 
development of Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, and 
English, namely the loss of morphological case and the loss of V°-to-I° 
movement and stylistic fronting, with a focus on the role of IP-Spec.

The synchronic part of the study deals with two different constructions 
in present-day Icelandic. Firstly, it focuses on the analysis of 
constructions with dative subjects and nominative objects, i.e. the 
agreement relation between a verb and a nominative DP and how to 
account for the fact that oblique subjects cannot be inanimate and that 
nominative objects cannot be first or second person. Secondly, it 
provides an analysis of stylistic fronting. 

The diachronic part of the study also focuses on the two constructions 
as there is a focus on showing that the older Scandinavian languages 
and English had dative subjects and that stylistic fronting existed in 
Old and Middle Danish. Furthermore, the aim of the study is to show 
that the loss of constructions with dative subjects and nominative 
objects followed a systematic process in these languages.

The two theoretical frameworks used in the thesis are Optimality 
Theory and the Minimalist Program.



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