Academic Paper |
|
|
|
|
| Title: | A Defective Auxiliary in Danish |
| Author: | Michael J. Houser |
| Institution: | University of California |
| Author: | Maziar Toosarvandani |
| Email: | click here to access email |
| Homepage: | http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~maziart/ |
| Institution: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Linguistic Field: | Syntax |
| Subject Language: |
Danish
English |
| Abstract: | In English, auxiliaries form a cohesive category—unlike main verbs, they all raise to T. In Danish, it is not so obvious that auxiliaries form such a unified category. In root clauses, all verbal elements can raise to T (and then to C), while in embedded clauses they always stay in situ. Therefore, determining the position of a verbal element in the extended verbal projection is a challenging task. We examine the Danish verbal element g⊘re ‘do’ that shows up when the verb phrase has been topicalized, elided, or pronominalized. Even though on the surface g⊘re might appear to be of category T or v, we argue that it is located right in the middle. We argue that it is an auxiliary, but, unlike other auxiliaries, g⊘re is defective because it only subcategorizes for vPs that are pronominal. |
|
|
|
|
This article appears in Journal of Germanic Linguistics Vol. 23, Issue 3, which you can read on Cambridge's site or on LINGUIST . |
|
|
|
|
Back
Add a new paper Return to Academic Papers main page Return to Directory of Linguists main page |
|
|
About LINGUIST
|
Contact Us
|
Report Broken Link
While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents. |
|
