Solf workshop (ScanDiaSyn 2006 Grand Meeting)

Null Subjects in Elfdalian

Henrik Rosenkvist, Lund University

(Pdf-version available here)

There are about 3000 speakers of Elfdalian in the north western part of Dalecarlia, Sweden. Elfdalian differs from Swedish at all linguistic levels, and hence it is, from a linguistic perspective, a language, not a dialect. It has been studied by Swedish linguists since the beginning of the 17th century.

One of the interesting syntactic features is that Elfdalian allows null subjects. In Elfdalian, it is fully grammatical to omit subjects of 1st and 2nd person plural:

1. Irum iema. 2. Irið iema. is-1pl home is-2pl home 'we are home' 'you are home'

The verb agreement seems to be of relevance for the null subjects (cf. Rohrbacher 1999). Null subjects have been allowed at least since the beginning of the 17th century. However, there is a crucial difference between omission of w?ð ('we') and of ið ('you'), illustrated below:

2. a. *Nu irum iema.
now be-1pl home
'now we are home'

b. *Wiso kåytum?
why run-1pl
'why are we running?'

3. a. Nu irið iema.
now be-2pl home
'now you are home'

b. Wiso kåytið?
why run-2pl
'why are you running?'

Null-w?ð seems to require a clause initial position, whereas null-ið may occur whereever in the clause. The null subjects in Elfdalian are probably an old Elfdalian innovation; in this talk I will investigate how they may have emerged as well as their syntactic features.

Selected references
Björklund, S. 1958. Gammalt och nytt i Älvdalsmålet. Älvdalens sockens historia V: 149.193. Fritzes, Stockholm.
Cooper, K, & Engdahl, E. 1989. Null Subjects in Zürich German. WPSS 44:31-44.
Fuß, E. 2005. The Rise of Agreement. John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia.
Hesselman, B. 1937. Bröllopsdikter på dialekt från 1600- och 1700-talen. Hugo Gebers, Stockholm.
Levander, L. 1909. Älvdalsmålet i Dalarna. Ordböjning ock syntax. Norstedt & Söner, Stockholm.
Mörnsjö, M. 2002. V1 Declaratives in Spoken Swedish. Dept. of Scandinavian Languages, LU.
Noreen, A. 1883. Översättning av Prytz komedi. De svenska landsmålen, Bihang 1:69-76.
Olsson, R. P. 1988. Mumunes Masse. Wasatryck, Mora.
Platzack, C. 2004. Agreement and the Person Phrase Hypothesis. WPSS 73:83-112.
Prytz, A. J. 1622. En Lustigh Comoedia Om then Stormechtige Sweriges... Publ. by J. A. Lundell in De svenska landsmålen, Appendix 1, 1883.
Rohrbacher, B. W. 1999. Morphology-Driven Syntax: A Theory of V to I Raising and Pro-Drop. John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia.