Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T19:15:56.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Negation in C: The Syntax of Negated Verbs in Old Norse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Thórhallur Eythórsson
Thórhallur Eythórsson
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, U.K. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

The syntax of finite verbs with the negation suffix -a/-at in early Old Norse reveals an asymmetry regarding the position of the verb relative to the subject in main clauses. The subject is regularly preceded by the negated verb, but followed by the verb in affirmative clauses. The asymmetry suggests that the subject is canonically in SpecIP. In affirmative subject-initial main clauses the finite verb moves to I, but the negated verbs obligatorily move to C. The movement of negated verbs to C is triggered by a [+neg] feature in this position. This assumption is independently motivated by the existence of the overt and non-overt negative complementizers in a variety of languages. The analysis advanced here supports the hypothesis that cross-linguistically sentential negation can be structurally represented in C.

Type
Articles
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , December 2002 , pp. 190 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Axelsdóttir, K. 2001. Nokkrar neitanir í forníslensku [Some Negations in Old Icelandic]. MA thesis, University of Iceland.Google Scholar
Bahloul, R. 1994. On the Difference between Negation in French and Tunisian Arabic. Ms. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.Google Scholar
Barðdal, J. & Eythórsson, T. 2001. The Evolution of Oblique Subjects in Scandinavian. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 67, 57–83.Google Scholar
Besten, H. den. 1977. On the Interaction of Root Transformations and Lexical Deletive Rules. In Abraham, W. (ed.), On the Formal Syntax of the Westgermania. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1983, pp. 47–138.Google Scholar
Brown, S. 1999. The Syntax of Negation in Russian. A Minimalist Approach. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. 1993. A Minimalistic Program for Linguistic Theory. In Hale, K. & Keyser, S. J. (eds), The View from Building 20. Essays in Linguistics in Honor of Sylvain Bromberger. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 1–51.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dal, I. 1930a. Ursprung und Verwendung der altnordischen “Expletivpartikel” of, um. Oslo: Jacob Dybwad.Google Scholar
Dal, I. 1930b. Zur Geschichte der schwachtonigen Präfixe im Nordischen. Norsk tidsskrift for sprogvidenskap 4, 179–210.Google Scholar
Delbrück, B. 1910. Germanische Syntax I: Zu den negativen Sätzen. Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschafien, philologisch-historische Klasse, 28.4. Leipzig: Teubner.Google Scholar
Eythórsson, T. 1995. Verbal Syntax in the Early Germanic Languages. Doctoral dissertation, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Eythórsson, T. 1996. Functional Categories, Cliticization and Verb Movement in the Early Germanic Languages. In Thráinsson, H., Epstein, S. D. & Peter, S. (eds), Studies in Comparative Germanic Syntax II. Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp. 109–139.Google Scholar
Eythórsson, T. 1997–1998. Uppruni sagnfærslu í germónskum málum [The Origin of Verb Movement in Germanic]. Íslenskt mál 19–20, 133–180.Google Scholar
Eythórsson, T. 2002. Particle, Prefix, Zero: Unidirectionality in the Development of Indo-European Preverbs. Ms. University of Manchester.Google Scholar
Faarlund, J. T. 2001. The Notion of Oblique Subject and its Status in the History of Icelandic. In Faarlund, J. T. (ed.), Grammatical Relations in Change. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 99–135.Google Scholar
Gering, H. 1902. Die Rhythmik des Ijóðaháttr. Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie 34:162–504.Google Scholar
Grønvik, O. 1997. Tanker omkring et etterlatt manuskript av Ingerid Dal: negasjonssystemet i eldste norrønt (eddadikt og skaldekvad). Norsk linguistisk tidsskrift 15, 3–30.Google Scholar
Haegeman, L. & Zanuttini, R. 1991. Negative Heads and the NEG Criterion. The Linguistic Review 8, 233–251.Google Scholar
Holmberg, A. & Platzack, C. 1995. The Role of Inflection in Scandinavian Syntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Horn, L. R. & Kato, Y. 2000a. Introduction: Negation and Polarity at the Millennium. In Horn & Kalo (eds) 2000b, pp. 1–19.Google Scholar
Horn, L. R. & Kato, Y. (eds). 2000b. Negation and Polarity. Syntactic and Semantic Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hróarsdóttir, T. 2000. Word Order Change in Icelandic: From OV to VO. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Jespersen, O. 1917. Negation in English and Other Languages. Copenhagen: Det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser 1, pp. 1–151.Google Scholar
Jónsson, J. G. 1996. Clausal Architecture and Case in Icelandic. Doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar
Kemenade, A. van. 2000. Jespersen's Cycle Revisited. In Pintzuk, S., Tsoulas, G. & Warner, A. (eds), Diachronic Syntax: Models and Mechanisms. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kissock, M. 1997. Middle Verbs in Icelandic. American Journal of Germanic Linguistics & Literatures 9, 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klima, E. 1964. Negation in English. In Fodor, J. & Katz, J. (eds), The Structure of Language. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, pp. 246–323.Google Scholar
Kuhn, H. 1929. Das Füllwort of – um im Altwestnordischen. Eine Untersuchung zur Geschichte der germanischen Präfixe. Ein Beitrag zur altgermanischen Metrik. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Kuhn, H. 1933. Zur Wortstellung und -betonung im Altgermanischen. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 57, 1–109.Google Scholar
Kuhn, H. 1936. Die Negation des Verbs in der altnordischen Dichtung. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 60, 431–444.Google Scholar
Laka, I. 1990. Negation in Syntax: on the Nature of Functional Categories and Projections. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Lasnik, H. 1972. Analyses of Negation in English. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Löpez, L. 1994. The Hierarchy of Negation and Tense in English. Cornell Working Papers in Linguistics 12, 73–93.Google Scholar
Maling, J. & Zaenen, A. (eds). 1990. Modern Icelandic Syntax. Syntax and Semantics 24. San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Mitchell, E. 1994. Morphological Evidence for Syntactic Structure: The Finno-Ugric Languages and English. Doctoral dissertation, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Mourek, V. E. 1903. Zur Negation im Altgermanischen. Prague: Verlag der kgl. Böhmischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Neckel, G. 1913. Zu den germanischen Negationen. Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung 45, 1–23.Google Scholar
Noreen, A. 1970. Altnordische Grammatik. I. Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (Laut- und Flexionslehre) unter Berücksichtigung des Urnordischen, 5th ed.Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Nygaard, M. 1865. Eddasprogets syntax I. Bergen: Giertsen.Google Scholar
Nygaard, M. 1867. Eddasprogets syntax II. Bergen: Giertsen.Google Scholar
Nygaard, M. 1905. Norrøn syntax. Kristiania: Aschehoug.Google Scholar
Önnerfors, O. 1997. Verb-erst-Deklarativsätze. Grammatik und Pragmatik. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.Google Scholar
Ottósson, K. G. 1989. VP-Specifier Subjects and the CP/IP Distinction in Icelandic and Mainland Scandinavian. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 44, 89–100.Google Scholar
Ottósson, K. G. 1992. The Icelandic Middle Voice: The Morphological and Phonological Development. Doctoral dissertation, Lund University.Google Scholar
Ouhalla, J. 1990. Sentential Negation, Relativized Minimality and the Aspectual Status of Auxiliaries. Linguistic Review 7, 183–231.Google Scholar
Ouhalla, J. 1997. The Structure and Logical Form of Negative Sentences. Linguistic Analysis 27, 220–244.Google Scholar
Pintzuk, S. 1991. Phrase Structures in Competition: Variation and Change in Old English Word Order. Doctoral dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Pollock, J.-Y. 1989. Verb Movement, Universal Grammar and the Structure of IP. Linguistic Inquiry 20, 365–424.Google Scholar
Portner, P. & Zanuttini, R. 2000. The Force of Negation in Wh Exclamatives and Interrogatives. In Horn & Kato (eds) 2000b, pp. 193–231.Google Scholar
Rivero, M.-L. 1990. The Location of Nonactive Voice in Albanian and Modern Greek. Linguistic Inquiry 21:135–146.Google Scholar
Rögnvaldsson, E. 1991. Quirky Subjects in Old Icelandic. In Sigurðsson, H.- Á. (ed.), Papers from the Twelfth Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics. Reykjavík: Institute of Linguistics, University of Iceland, pp. 369–378.Google Scholar
Rögnvaldsson, E. 1996. Word Order Variation in the VP in Old Icelandic. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 58, 55–86.Google Scholar
Rögnvaldsson, E. & Thráinsson, H. 1990. On Icelandic Word Order Once More. In Maling, J. & Zaenen, A. (eds) 1990, pp. 3–40.Google Scholar
Sievers, E. 1912. Zur nordischen Verbalnegation. Indogermanische Forschungen 31, 335–358.Google Scholar
Sigurðsson, H. Á. 1983. Um frásagnarumröðun og grundvallarorðaröð í forníslensku ásamtnokkrum samanburði við nútímamál [On Narrative Inversion and Basic Word Order in Old Icelandic, with Some Comparison with Modern Icelandic]. MA thesis, University of Iceland.Google Scholar
Sigurðsson, H. Á. 1990. VI Declaratives and Verb Raising in Icelandic. In Maling, J. & Zaenen, A. (eds), 1990, pp. 41–69.Google Scholar
Sigurðsson, H. Á. 1993. Argument-drop in Old Icelandic. Lingua 89:247–280.Google Scholar
Suñer, M. 1994. Negation and the Features of Comp. Cornell Working Papers in Linguistics 12, 183–192.Google Scholar
Travis, L. de Mena. 1984. Parameters and Effects of Word Order Variation. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Travis, L. de Mena. 1991. Parameters of Phrase Structure and Verb-Second Phenomena. In Freidin, R. (ed.), Principles and Parameters in Comparative Grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 339–364.Google Scholar
Vikner, S. 1995. Verb Movement and Expletive Subjects in the Germanic Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wimmer, L. F. A. 1914. De danske runemindesmcerker. Haandudgave ved L. Jacobsen. Copenhagen/Kristiania.Google Scholar
Wood, C. 1952. A Contribution to a System of Skaldic Word Order. Doctoral dissertation, Yale University.Google Scholar
Zanuttini, R. 1997. Negation and Clausal Structure: A Comparative Study of Romance Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zwart, C. J.-W. 1993. Dutch Syntax: A Minimalist Approach. Doctoral dissertation, University of Groningen.Google Scholar
Zwart, C. J.-W. 1997. Morphosyntax of Verb Movement: A Minimalist Approach to the Syntax of Dutch. Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar