Workshop on Inversion and Verb Movement

The function word så and Norwegian CP syntax

Christine Bjerkan Østbø
University of Tromsø, CASTL

The function word så is frequent in colloquial speech in constructions such as for det første så har vi i dag en utvikling der regionsentra påvirker dialektene (‘For the first, so have we today a development where the region-centers-DEF influences the dialects’). Så is generally optional and it intervenes between the fronted element and the finite verb, and we may therefore say that it yields V3. Still, it seems like it has no effect on e.g. V-to-C movement. It is tempting to treat the phenomenon on a par with what is usually known as left-dislocation, Mary, she's in town. However, in the exploration of the CP field in Norwegian, I'll show that these two constructions are different in their very nature.