Interest in non-canonically case-marked subjects has been unceasing since the groundbreaking work of Andrews and Masica in the late 70's who were the first to document the existence of syntactic subjects in another morphological case than the nominative. Their research was focused on Icelandic and South-Asian languages, respectively, and since then, oblique subjects have been reported for language after language throughout the world. This newfangled recognition of the concept of oblique subjects at the time was followed by discussions of the role and validity of subject tests, discussions of the verbal semantics involved, as well as discussions of the theoretical implications of this case marking strategy of syntactic subjects. This volume contributes to all these debates, making available research articles on different languages and language families, additionally highlighting issues like language contact, differential subject marking and the origin of oblique subjects.
Author(s): Jóhanna Barðdal, Na’ama Pat-El, Stephen Mark Carey
Series: Studies in Language Companion Series 200
Edition: Hardcover
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 286
Chapter 1. Introduction: The Reykjavík-Eyjafjallajökull papers
Jóhanna Barðdal
1–20
Part I. Areal/geneological investigations
24–82
Chapter 2. Non-nominative and depersonalized subjects in the Balkans: Areality vs. genealogy
Victor A. Friedman and Brian D. Joseph
23–54
Chapter 3. Affective constructions in Tsezic languages
Bernard Comrie, Diana Forker and Zaira Khalilova
55–82
Part II. Synchronic investigations
86–131
Chapter 4. A macrorole approach to dative subjects
Patrick Farrell and Beatriz Willgohs
85–114
Chapter 5. Dative case and oblique subjects
Robert D. Van Valin Jr.
115–132
Part III. Diachronic investigations
136–237
Chapter 6. Word order as a subject test in Old Icelandic
Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson
135–154
Chapter 7. The diachrony of non-canonical subjects in Northwest Semitic
Na'ama Pat-El
155–180
Chapter 8. Case marking of predicative possession in Vedic: The genitive, the dative, the locative
Serena Danesi and Jóhanna Barðdal
181–212
Chapter 9. Accusative sickness?: A brief epidemic in the history of German
Tonya Kim Dewey-Findell and Stephen Mark Carey
213–238
Afterword
242–273
Chapter 10. Forty years in the search of a/the subject
Andrej L. Malchukov
241–256
Chapter 11. What is a subject: The nature and validity of subject tests
Jóhanna Barðdal and Thórhallur Eythórsson
257–274
Language index
275–276
Subject Index
277–280
