Non-Canonically Case-Marked Subjects

The Reykjavík-Eyjafjallajökull papers

Editors

Jóhanna Barðdal

Na’ama Pat-El

Stephen Mark Carey

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027201478 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027263513 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00

Interest in non-canonically case-marked subjects has been unceasing since the groundbreaking work of Andrews and Masica in the late 70’s who were the first to document the existence of syntactic subjects in another morphological case than the nominative. Their research was focused on Icelandic and South-Asian languages, respectively, and since then, oblique subjects have been reported for language after language throughout the world. This newfangled recognition of the concept of oblique subjects at the time was followed by discussions of the role and validity of subject tests, discussions of the verbal semantics involved, as well as discussions of the theoretical implications of this case marking strategy of syntactic subjects. This volume contributes to all these debates, making available research articles on different languages and language families, additionally highlighting issues like language contact, differential subject marking and the origin of oblique subjects.

[Studies in Language Companion Series, 200] 2018. vi, 280 pp.

Publishing status:

https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.200

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction: The Reykjavík-Eyjafjallajökull papers

Jóhanna Barðdal | pp. 1–20

Part I. Areal/geneological investigations

Chapter 2. Non-nominative and depersonalized subjects in the Balkans: Areality vs. genealogy

Victor A. Friedman and Brian D. Joseph | pp. 23–54

Chapter 3. Affective constructions in Tsezic languages

Bernard Comrie, Diana Forker and Zaira Khalilova | pp. 55–82

Part II. Synchronic investigations

Chapter 4. A macrorole approach to dative subjects

Patrick Farrell and Beatriz Willgohs | pp. 85–114

Chapter 5. Dative case and oblique subjects

Robert D. Van Valin | pp. 115–132

Part III. Diachronic investigations

Chapter 6. Word order as a subject test in Old Icelandic

Jóhannes G. Jónsson | pp. 135–154

Chapter 7. The diachrony of non-canonical subjects in Northwest Semitic

Na’ama Pat-El | pp. 155–180

Chapter 8. Case marking of predicative possession in Vedic: The genitive, the dative, the locative

Serena Danesi and Jóhanna Barðdal | pp. 181–212

Chapter 9. Accusative sickness? A brief epidemic in the history of German

Tonya Kim Dewey and Stephen Mark Carey | pp. 213–238

Afterword

Chapter 10. Forty years in the search of a/the subject

Andrej Malchukov | pp. 241–256

Chapter 11. What is a subject: The nature and validity of subject tests

Jóhanna Barðdal and Thórhallur Eythórsson | pp. 257–274

Language index | pp. 275–276

Subject Index | pp. 277–280

“The collection of papers in this volume represents an authoritative study, by both leading scholars and younger researchers. It provides important insights, new data, analyses and research perspectives, from both under-researched and thoroughly discussed languages, in a highly valuable comparative perspective and with a multiplicity of theoretical approaches and breadth of issues covered, including also the role played by contact and inheritance in shaping the phenomenon. The volume also re-addresses the issue of the parameters involved in the identification and definition of the notion of subject. It will stand out as a reference work for future studies on the issue.”

Michela Cennamo, University of Naples Federico II

“This volume contains an extraordinary treasure of cross-linguistic data from a wide range of languages with succinct analyses and detailed discussions of various issues on the nature of subject and subject properties, demonstrating that non-nominative case marking of subjects is a robust phenomenon and is not ‘quirky’ in any sense, as it was once thought to be. These scholarly papers testify to how the study of cross-linguistic variation in terms of different case marking strategies of subjects enables a better understanding of Universal Grammar and its implications for word order, argument structure, control phenomena, antecedent-anaphor relations, verbal semantics, language change and structural typology. This volume is thus a valuable addition and contribution to the existing theory of knowledge concerning non-nominative subjects.”

K.V. Subbarao, Delhi University & Hyderabad University

“This is a fine volume with many excellent and well-written contributions. The authors’ arguments and the evidence from the various languages are presented in a clear and readable manner, making it easy to follow the discussion even if the language(s) under investigation is/are unfamiliar to the reader.”

Sune Gregersen, University of Amsterdam, on Linguist List 30.3270, 2019

Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Rodríguez Guerra, Alexandre

2023. Prototipicidade, marcaxe prepositiva e suxeito no galego medieval. Revista Galega de Filoloxía 24

Abraham, Werner

2020. From philosophical logic to linguistics. In Thetics and Categoricals [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 262], ► pp. 226 ff.

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Subjects