Non-Nominative Subjects in Old and Middle Danish

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G. Hr. Hrafnbjargarson XVIth International Conference on Historical Linguistics The second inconvenience about example (15) is that the verb lade ’let’, which is an ECM verb, allows for topicalization of the object. This will become clear in the next section. 2.4 ECM constructions In ECM constructions, the subject position is the first position of the embedded clause. The verb in the embedded clause is an infinitive and it cannot check case on the subject of the clause. Therefore, the matrix verb (usually a perception verb such as se ’see’, høre ’hear, bede ’ask’, føle ’feel’ or lade ’let’) checks case on the subject. I found no examples of oblique case assigning verbs in ECM constructions but such examples can be found: 6 (16) MD. ... och lodh sigh møghit tycke atwære cloogh ... and let REFL-OBL much think to be clever vdi loghen about law-the (1450-1500, Mirakel om Biskop Dunstanus) ’... and let himself make the impression as if he knew much about the law’ This test might however not be suitable for Danish. As mentioned above, one of the ECM verbs, the verb lade ’let’, allows the object to be topicalized: (17) MD. oc lada honum cristna af pafvan and let him-OBL Christianize of pope ’and let him be Christianized by the pope himself’ sælfom self (1425, SJTR) 2.5 Raising In raising, the subject of the embedded clause raises to the subject position of the matrix clause. Usually, the subject is assigned nominative case by the matrix verb but inherent oblique case (potentially assigned by the infinitive) overrides nominative case assignment and the inherent case surfaces in the matrix clause. I found no cases of raising with oblique case assigning verbs in the Old Danish Dictionary but cases of raising have been cited in the literature (Bardal 2000:37). Bardal’s (2000:37) three examples from Middle Danish all include modal verbs. She cites two examples with the modal kunne ’can’, and one with the modal må ’may’, shown in (18), Bardal (2000:37, (24)): (18) MD. them i motthæ [ t i ther foræ grwæ ] them.OBL might that for disgust ’They should be disgusted by that’ (1450, Rimkrønikken, Nielsen 1895-1911:71) 6 Example (16) is cited in Bardal (2000:35, (16)), who cites Diderichsen (1931-1937:170). Here, it is in my translation. København, August 11, 2003 6 of 12
G. Hr. Hrafnbjargarson XVIth International Conference on Historical Linguistics In the Old Danish Dictionary, I found three such examples, one with the modal skulle ’shall’ and two with the modal må ’may’. This depends on the assumption that modals are raising verbs. It would be less controversial if the example had the verb forekomme ’seem’ instead of the modal. I have however not found any such examples. 2.6 Heavy Subject Shift In modern Danish, heavy pronominals that behave like full DPs can be found, for example du og jeg ’you and I’ or ham med den grimme Volvo ’him with the ugly Volvo’ but they do not necessarily have to undergo Heavy Subject Shift (Jørgensen 2000:72-76, and Mikkelsen 1911:593-596). 7 (19) Da. a. *Da kørte lige ind i tankstationen ham Then drove right in in petrol station-the him med den grimme Volvo with the ugly Volvo b. Da kørte ham med den grimme Volvo lige Then drove him-OBL with the ugly Volvo right ind i tankstationen in in petrol station-the ’Then, the one with the ugly Volvo crashed right into the petrol-station’ Because I only collected examples with pronominals, I found no examples with oblique case assigning verbs that show Heavy Subject Shift in the Old Danish Dictionary. I have not found examples of Heavy Subject Shift in the corpus Dansk Sprog- og Stilhistorisk Database (Ruus 2001) either. Furthermore, the status of Heavy Subject Shift as a subjecthood test for Danish is not clear, cf. that e.g. Vikner (1995:206) considers Heavy Subject Shift to be ungrammatical in Danish, even with heavy NP subjects. 2.7 Control Control infinitives are embedded infinitival clauses where the subject has been omitted. They are called control infinitives because the subject of the matrix clause controls, and allows for the omission of the subject in the embedded clause. In the Modern Danish sentence in (20), the subject han ’he’ controls the subject gap in the embedded clause. The subject gap is filled 7 Ken Ramshøj Christensen, p.c., has told me that (19a) is very archaic, if not ungrammatical, and that most people would prefer (19b) over (19a). København, August 11, 2003 7 of 12
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Non-Nominative Subjects in Old and Middle Danish

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