Non-Nominative Subjects in Old and Middle Danish

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G. Hr. Hrafnbjargarson XVIth International Conference on Historical Linguistics (8) OD. um them thickir swa if they-OBL thinks-3SG such ’if they think such’ (9) MD. tho at thek synes annær ledhes though that you-OBL think-SG other wise ’Though you think it is otherwise’ (1200, SKLOV) (1450, SØNDEV) (10) Da. a. ... hvis de ikke ... if they-NOM not ’... if they have not read the book’ b. ... selvom du aldrig har ... though you-NOM never have ’... though you have never read the book’ har læst bogen have read book-the læst bogen read book-the I found no examples of topicalization of objects in embedded clauses with verbs that assign oblique case to their subjects, i.e. the word order complementizer – object – verb Ò – subject – verb ÑÒ : (11) a. *om det if it b. *... ... havde had dig syntes you thought selvom bogen havde though book-the had du læst you read Examples such as (8) are relevant because if them ’them’ in (8) were an object following a complementizer, then examples such as (11a) should also exist. 2.2 Reflexivization In modern Scandinavian (MSc and ISc), reflexive pronouns can only be bound by subjects: (12) Da. a. Hun i fortalte She-NOM told ham j en him-OBL a selv i/*j SELF ’She told him a story about herself’ b. Han i gik sig i en tur He-NOM walked REFL a tour ’He took himself a stroll on the beach’ historie story på stranden on beach-the om sig about REFL According to Mikkelsen (1911:258-267), this also holds for the older stages of Danish. Therefore, honum ’him’ in (13) must be the subject: København, August 11, 2003 4 of 12
G. Hr. Hrafnbjargarson XVIth International Conference on Historical Linguistics (13) MD. Honum thøkte [ sek vara i en Him-DAT thought REFL be in a ’He thought that he was in a wonderful town’ lysteligen wonderful stath ] town (1425, SJTR) 2.3 Conjunction Reduction In modern Scandinavian (MSc and ISc), the subject in the last of two conjoined sentences can be omitted. In such context, the object cannot be omitted: (14) Da. a. I dag læste Today read jeg en I-NOM a brev letter ’Today, I read a book and wrote a letter’ bog og [e] skrev et book and wrote a b. *Denne bog fandt jeg og [e] købte jeg med This book found I-NOM and bought I-NOM with det samme the same If Old and Middle Danish behaved in the same way as Modern Danish, i.e. that only subjects can be omitted, oss ’us’ in (15) must be the subject for both lighe ’like’ and noghe ’be content with’: 4 (15) MD. ... ladæ [ oss lighe ok [e] noghæ meth thet ] ... let us-OBL like and be content with it ’... let us like it and be content with it’ (1407) 5 This example is however not completely unproblematic. First of all, it is inconvenient that the subjects of both conjoined clauses are oblique subjects. It is known from German (cf. Eythórsson & Bardal 2003:174 and references there) that subject-like datives and accusatives can be omitted in the last of two conjoined sentences if there is a subject-like dative or accusative in the first of two conjoined sentences. According to Eythórsson & Bardal (2003:175) the same holds for nominative subjects in German, i.e. nominative subjects can only be omitted if the subject of the first clause is nominative. Eythórsson & Bardal (2003) take this fact not to weaken Conjunction Reduction as a subjecthood test, rather they take it to proove the existance of oblique subjects in German. 4 The verb nøjes ’be content with’ also assigned oblique case to its subject: (i) Da. Hun har alt det, mig kand nøje She has all that me-OBL can be content with ’She has everything that I can be content with’ (1648, ASC I.178) 5 26/2 1407 (Rosk,Rep.4882;i vid, 25/5 1414 kanc.).(bisp el.)kanc.; København, August 11, 2003 5 of 12
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Non-Nominative Subjects in Old and Middle Danish

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