This paper investigates the distribution of pronouns in Old Norse and Modern Norwegian, focusing mainly on Old Norse referential null subjects and their counterparts in Modern Norwegian. The theoretical starting point is the Givenness Hierarchy of Gundel et al. (1993), which predicts that null and unstressed pronouns can only be used appropriately if their referents have the cognitive status in focus, meaning, in short, that their referents must be “[…] at the current center of attention” (Gundel et al. 1993: 279). I will argue that the referents of Old Norse null subjects are not necessarily in focus, whereas Modern Norwegian unstressed subject pronouns seem to require this. I will propose an analysis of Old Norse null subjects whereby cognitive status is supplemented by semantic and morphological factors.
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Farasyn, Melissa & Anne Breitbarth
2016. Nullsubjekte im Mittelniederdeutschen. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 138:4 ► pp. 524 ff.
Kinn, Kari
2016. Referential vs. non-referential null subjects in Middle Norwegian. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 39:3 ► pp. 277 ff.
Kinn, Kari, Kristian A. Rusten & George Walkden
2016. Null Subjects in Early Icelandic. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 28:1 ► pp. 31 ff.
Rusten, Kristian A.
2019. Referential Null Subjects in Early English,
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