The goal of this paper is to provide a systematic overview and analysis of the syntax of Icelandi... more The goal of this paper is to provide a systematic overview and analysis of the syntax of Icelandic adverbial clauses in terms of the whether they do or do not allow so-called main clause phenomena. The classification of adverbial clauses follows the typology of Haegeman (2012) where adverbial clauses are divided into two classes: central adverbial clauses that resist main clause phenomena and peripheral adverbial clauses that may permit such phenomena (XP-fronting etc.). It turns out that fronting is possible in a subset of adverbial clauses exactly as predicted by Haegeman's typology and such examples are found in both in judgement data and written sources. Further, this initial work shows that there appears to be a distinction between argument fronting (less free) and adjunct fronting (more free) in Icelandic and this is a distinction that has not previously been systematically examined. It has long been observed that adverbial clauses exhibit variable word order. In English for example, some adverbial clauses allow argument and adjunct topicalization whereas other resist such fronting. Here, we are concerned with similar word order variation in adverbial clauses in Icelandic primarily and data from other Scandinavian languages is presented briefly for comparative purposes. This paper is largely descriptive, however it can be taken as a first step towards a typology of adverbial clauses in Scandinvian more generally. The framework adopted here is the typology of adverbial clauses set out in Haegeman (2012, and much previous work) where adverbial clauses are divided into two groups: those that allow main clause phenomena and those that do not. Further, Haegeman distinguishes between adverbial clauses that she terms 'peripheral' or 'central' to capture the degree of integration of adverbial clauses with respect to the clause that they modify. For Scandianvian verb second languages then, we might expect that adverbial clauses that are 'peripheral' in Haegeman's sense may allow main clause word order whereas such orders are resisted in central adverbial clauses. The second part of the paper presents an overview of Haegeman's typology as applied to adverbial clauses in English. The third part of the paper dicusses data from both written and spoken Icelandic. In the fourth section, we provide comparative data from other Scandinivian languages showing that adverbial clauses can be analyzed with respect to the possibility of main clause phenomena as predicted by Haegeman's typology. This is followed by a short discussion.
The goal of this paper is to provide a systematic overview and analysis of the syntax of Icelandi... more The goal of this paper is to provide a systematic overview and analysis of the syntax of Icelandic adverbial clauses in terms of the whether they do or do not allow so-called main clause phenomena. The classification of adverbial clauses follows the typology of Haegeman (2012) where adverbial clauses are divided into two classes: central adverbial clauses that resist main clause phenomena and peripheral adverbial clauses that may permit such phenomena (XP-fronting etc.). It turns out that fronting is possible in a subset of adverbial clauses exactly as predicted by Haegeman's typology and such examples are found in both in judgement data and written sources. Further, this initial work shows that there appears to be a distinction between argument fronting (less free) and adjunct fronting (more free) in Icelandic and this is a distinction that has not previously been systematically examined. It has long been observed that adverbial clauses exhibit variable word order. In English for example, some adverbial clauses allow argument and adjunct topicalization whereas other resist such fronting. Here, we are concerned with similar word order variation in adverbial clauses in Icelandic primarily and data from other Scandinavian languages is presented briefly for comparative purposes. This paper is largely descriptive, however it can be taken as a first step towards a typology of adverbial clauses in Scandinvian more generally. The framework adopted here is the typology of adverbial clauses set out in Haegeman (2012, and much previous work) where adverbial clauses are divided into two groups: those that allow main clause phenomena and those that do not. Further, Haegeman distinguishes between adverbial clauses that she terms 'peripheral' or 'central' to capture the degree of integration of adverbial clauses with respect to the clause that they modify. For Scandianvian verb second languages then, we might expect that adverbial clauses that are 'peripheral' in Haegeman's sense may allow main clause word order whereas such orders are resisted in central adverbial clauses. The second part of the paper presents an overview of Haegeman's typology as applied to adverbial clauses in English. The third part of the paper dicusses data from both written and spoken Icelandic. In the fourth section, we provide comparative data from other Scandinivian languages showing that adverbial clauses can be analyzed with respect to the possibility of main clause phenomena as predicted by Haegeman's typology. This is followed by a short discussion.
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Papers by Dianne Jonas