Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.1980, Blaðsíða 189

Inversion in Embedded Clauses in Modern Icelandic
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The Subject-Gap Condition on Stylistic Inversion in embedded
clauses provides yet another argument for the subjecthood of these NPs.
If verbs which take preverbal oblique NPs occur in embedded clauses,
then Stylistic Inversion is unacceptable if that oblique NP is overtly
present. This fact is illustrated by the following contrasts:
(38) a Hún benti á myndina, sem hana hafði langað að selja
b *Hún benti á myndina, sem langað hafði hana að selja
(39) a Hún benti á manninn, sem henni samdi ekki við
b *Hún benti á manninn, sem ekki samdi henni við
c *Hún benti á manninn, sem við samdi henni (ekki)
If the preverbal oblique NPs in (38a) and (39a), namely hana and henni,
are analysed as subjects, then the unacceptability of Stylistic Inversion
follows from the Subject-Gap Condition stated in (9). If they are not
analyzed as subjects, then we cannot attribute the unacceptability of the
b-versions to the presence of a subject NP, and the generalization ex-
pressed in (9) is lost. Note that it is in principle possible to invert such
preverbal oblique NPs with the finite verb to form questions, or if Topi-
calization has applied,13 as illustrated in (40).
(40) í gær langaði hana til Grænlands, í dag langar hana til Hollands,
og hver veit, hvað hana langar á morgun
The conclusion that Icelandic does indeed have oblique subjects seems
inevitable.14
13 Note that this difference provides further support for the distinction between
Topicalization and Stylistic Inversion.
14 Yet another argument that preverbal oblique NPs are actually subjects rather
than preposed objects comes from the variety of possible infinitive phrases. Con-
sider the following:
er slæmt
(ii)
Að nægja tvær bækur
*Að nægja þeim
*Að nægja þeim tvær bækur
er furðulegt
Ö)
Að vanta skó
*Að mig vanta
*Að vanta mig
*Að vanta mig skó
Assuming that infinitive phrases are simply subjectless clauses, then, regardless of
whether they are base-generated as such (e.g., as VPs) and their subjects supplied
mterpretatively, or whether they are generated as full sentences whose subjects are
transformationally deleted, the contrasts illustrated in (i)-(ii) support the analysis
of preverbal oblique NPs as subjects. Infinitive phrases containing an inverted