We discuss remarkable constructions in Icelandic that have the distributive pronoun hvor ‘each’ in common: the reciprocal construction hvor annar ‘each other’, and the distributive construction hvor sinn ‘each their’, which also comes in a sinn hvor ‘their each’ version. We provide the first detailed description of these constructions, in particular their case and word order properties, which raise recalcitrant puzzles, and then we discuss what they say about the syntax of nonfinite verbs. Specifically, the word order and case properties of these constructions indicate that nonfinite verbs in Icelandic undergo short verb movement within the verb phrase. That is, the evidence indicates that the leftmost element in these constructions, alternatively hvor or sinn, originates inside an object DP and moves, by what we call e-raising, to the base position of an antecedent with which it agrees, before being stranded by that very antecedent. Nevertheless, the verb appears to the left of this element, even when it is a nonfinite verb, showing that it must undergo short movement to the left of Spec,vP. In addition, the interaction of e-raising and case has important consequences for Case theory, as it indicates that case agreement and case marking take place in PF.
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April 19 2021
Hvor ‘Each’ Reciprocals and Distributives in Icelandic: E-Raising + Short Main Verb Movement
Halldór Ármann Sigurðsson,
Halldór Ármann Sigurðsson
Lund University, SOL, Centre for Languages and Literature, halldor.sigurdsson@nordlund.lu.se
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Jim Wood,
Jim Wood
Yale University, Department of Linguistics, jim.wood@yale.edu
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Einar Freyr Sigurðsson
Einar Freyr Sigurðsson
The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, einar.freyr.sigurdsson@arnastofnun.is
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Halldór Ármann Sigurðsson
Lund University, SOL, Centre for Languages and Literature, halldor.sigurdsson@nordlund.lu.se
Jim Wood
Yale University, Department of Linguistics, jim.wood@yale.edu
Einar Freyr Sigurðsson
The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, einar.freyr.sigurdsson@arnastofnun.is
Online Issn: 1530-9150
Print Issn: 0024-3892
© 2020 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
2020
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For a full description of the license, please visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
Linguistic Inquiry 1–18.
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Halldór Ármann Sigurðsson, Jim Wood, Einar Freyr Sigurðsson; Hvor ‘Each’ Reciprocals and Distributives in Icelandic: E-Raising + Short Main Verb Movement. Linguistic Inquiry 2021; doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00411
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