Weak Dative Case In Norwegian Dialect Syntax

Abstract

Abstract. A remarkable fact about dative case in Norwegian dative dialects is that it bears all the marks of being a non‐structural (lexical, inherent) case as to the nature of its in situ generation, but still it is not preserved under A‐movement, which makes it a structural case according to the favoured diagnostic tests in generative grammar. We discuss the relevant data and argue that dative case in Norwegian should be classified as what we call a weak non‐structural case. Furthermore, we hypothesize that accusative and dative are more alike than previously thought, both being non‐structural cases, and in a development of Woolford (2006) we propose that all cases that are licensed inside vP should be counted as lexical or inherent non‐structural cases.

Morphological dative in Norwegian dialects

“…The most common environment for a dative is after a dative assigning preposition, and the least accepted and only rarely uttered is after a dative assigning verb. This weakening position of dative in Norwegian dialects is also confirmed by recent studies, like Anderson (2010), Åfarli & Fjøsne (2012), and Eyþórsson et al…”

Dative case in Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese: Preservation and non-preservation

“…Crucially, the passive data are different from corresponding data with topicalization in the Halsa dialect, see Åfarli & Fjøsne (2012:83–86). Generally, dative is preserved under topicalization in this dialect, see (52) for topicalization counterparts to (50a) and (51a).…”

“…In other words, we suggest that non-structural (lexical, inherent) case comes in two varieties which we will characterize as strong and weak, respectively. Strong dative case is preserved under passivization, whereas weak dative case is not (see alsoÅfarli & Fjøsne 2012). 5 What are the ramifications of this for case typology and standard case diagnostics in generative syntax?…”

“…Consider first a set of examples from the Halsa dialect (HAL), showing the basic facts concerning the non-preservation of dative in passives, see Åfarli & Fjøsne (2012:83–86). The verb hjelpe ‘help’ requires a dative object DP, as shown in (49a) where ’nå ‘him’ is the clitic dative form of the masculine singular 3rd person personal pronoun.…”

Two types of case variation

“…4.Passives with DP movement do not work as a diagnostic for the structural/oblique distinction in all languages or dialects, e.g. in Faroese (Thráinsson et al 2004:266–274, and Jónsson 2009a) and the Norwegian dative dialects (Sandoy 2001, and Åfarli & Fjøsne 2012). …”