Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.1980, Blaðsíða 185

Inversion in Embedded Clauses in Modern Icélandic
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a verb, but not in the corresponding personal uses of the same verb in
the active voice with expressed subject NP. This is illustrated by the
contrasts in (16)-(18):
(16) a Það var hætt að rigna, þegar komið var þangað
b *Það var hætt að rigna, þegar komin var rútan þangað
(17) a Það fór að rigna, þegar farið var af stað
b *Það fór að rigna, þegar farið var bamið heim
(18) a Verðbólgan varð verri en búist hafði verið við
b *Verðbólgan varð verri en búist hafði ríkisstjórnin við
The ungrammatical b-versions all have definite subjects, whereas the
grammatical a-versions are subjectless impersonal passives.
The same point can be made for predicate adjectives such as hcegt
‘possible’ or venjulegt ‘usual’, which may occur with dummy subject
það, but which often invert with the copula instead. This type of in-
version in embedded clauses was illustrated in (6). In general, these
copular predicates are lexically impersonal and do not have correspon-
ding personal uses.10 However, there is a personal construction with
preposition til preceding an infinitive complement, which is illustrated
in (19); this construction cannot take dummy það:
(19) a Hann er líklegur til að koma
b Hún er líkleg til að koma
With such personal copular predicates, Stylistic Inversion is possible
°nly if the subject NP has been extracted; this is illustrated by the
contrasts in (20):
(20) a Hann er sá eini, sem ekki er líklegur til að koma
b *Hún spurði, hvort ekki væri hann líklegur til að koma
c *Hún spurði, hvort líklegur væri hann til að koma
10 In transformational terms, Icelandic lacks a Subject-to-Subject Raising con-
struction with copular predicates. In English syntax, Subject-to-Subject Raising
relates pairs of sentences like (i) and (ii):
(0 It is not Iikely that George will be elected
(ii) George is not likely to be elected
In (i) the copular predicate be likely takes a dummy subject it and a í/iaí-clause
complement, whereas (ii) takes an ordinary NP subject and an infinitival comple-
rnent. The subject of the t/mí-clause complement in (i) corresponds to the subject
°f copular predicate in (ii). See Thráinsson(1979:409ff).