Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 2020, Page 128

The evidence for assuming that the expletive in Swedish is generated in
Spec,VP comes from data like (11) where the expletive is required in an
untensed small clause. In Icelandic the expletive is ungrammatical for
some but not all speakers (see discussion in Thráinsson 1979:357, 446,
481f. and Sigurðsson 2010:172, n. 23).
(11) Vi såg *(det) komma några barn på vägen. (Swe.)
we saw expl come some children on road.def
‘We saw some children come on the road.’
(12) Við sáum (*það) koma nokkur börn eftir veginum. (Ice.)
we saw expl come some children along road.def
‘We saw some children come on the road.’
2.2 Two problems
Even if the standard account outlined in the previous section does handle
these two differences between Icelandic and Swedish, there are certain
facts that remain unexplained. First, although pivots are possible with
agentive transitive verbs in Icelandic, as shown in (5), they have to be IP-
pivots and cannot appear inside the VP.9
(13)a.*Það munu hafa einhverjir stúdentar stungið smjörinu í vasann.
expl will have some students put butter.def in pocket.def
b.*Það hafa stungið smjörinu einhverjir stúdentar í vasann.
expl have put butter.def some students in pocket.def
c.Það hafa stungið smjörinu í vasann einhverjir stúdentar.
expl have put butter.def in pocket.def some students
(13a,b), where the pivot appears in the VP, are impossible. (13c) is accept-
able but presumably involves extraposition of einhverjir stúdentar outside
the VP. The standard account does not explain why the pivot cannot
remain in the VP, where it is generated according to (9).
Second, although Swedish does not allow pivots with agentive transi-
tive verbs, as shown in (6), pivots with non-agentive transitive verbs are
possible, as noted in Platzack (1983) and Maling (1988), provided they
appear in the VP.
(14)a. Det hade hänt henne något konstigt igår. (Swe.)
expl had happened her something strange yesterday
‘Something strange had happened to her yesterday.’
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9 The additional auxiliary verb in (13a) is needed in order to show that the pivot can-
not appear in Spec,VP, see Thráinsson (2007:56) and Sigurðsson (2019:594ff.).