AG Comparative Germanic Syntax and the Challenge from Icelandic

Invited Speakers: 
Ásgrímur Angantýsson (Reykjavík) 
Nicole Dehé (Konstanz)

Research on comparative Germanic syntax has for a long time been stimulated by the challenge of Icelandic, a language singled out by a great number of 'peculiar' phenomena not attested (to such a degree) elsewhere (Maling & Zaenen 1990; Thráinsson 1994; 2007). The aim of our workshop is to bring together researchers more narrowly concerned with the proper analysis of Icelandic with researchers interested in comparative Germanic syntax who would like to test and broaden their views in light of the 'Icelandic challenge.' We particularly welcome attempts at bringing in evidence from the interfaces of syntax with morphophonology and prosody as well as semantics/pragmatics. Given the long and virtually uninterrupted literary documentation of Icelandic, this language is an ideal testing ground for theories of language change. Therefore, we also encourage contributions from historical linguistics.

Program

Thursday 24 February 2011 

9.00-9.30
Thórhallur Eythórsson (Reykjavík):
Challenging the Challenge: Case in Faroese and Icelandic 

9.30-10.00
Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson (Reykjavík):
Dative vs. Accusative Objects in Icelandic 

10.00-10.30
Jóhanna Barðdal (Bergen):
Alternating Dat-Nom/Nom-Dat Verbs in a Germanic Context 

10.30-11.00
Joan Maling (Brandeis), Anthony Kroch (UPenn) 
& Sigríður Sigurjónsdóttir (Reykjavík):
The Icelandic Challenge: A System-Internal Syntactic Change 

11.30.-12.00
Jim Wood (New York):
The Unintentional Causer in Icelandic 

12.00.-12.30
Øystein Alexander Vangsnes (Tromsø):
Rolling Up the North Germanic Noun Phrase 

12.30.-13.00
Nicole Dehé (Konstanz) [invited speaker]:
Aspects of Icelandic Sentence Prosody and the Syntax-Prosody Interface

Friday 25 February 2011 

11.30-12.00
Ásgrímur Angantýsson (Reykjavík) [invited speaker]:
The Morpho-Syntax of Verb/Adverb Placement and Fronting in Embedded Clauses in Icelandic and Related Languages 

12.00.-12.30
Piotr Garbacz (Oslo):
The Split IP Parameter and the Swedish dialects of Ovansiljan 

12.30-13.00
Höskuldur Thráinsson (Reykjavík):
Icelandic A, B, C, D ... ? Or: How Long is the Icelandic Alphabet? 

13.00-13.30
Svetlana Petrova (Berlin):
Embedded V2 in Middle Low German 

13.30.-14.00
Hans-Martin Gärtner (Berlin):
Medium-Distance Anaphora

Alternates: 

Sabine Häusler (Halle): Subordinators in (Old)Icelandic
Alexander Pfaff (Tromsø): Position Matters, not Form! 

PDF program and abstracts