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The Distribution of Definiteness Markers and the Growth of Syntactic Structure from Old Norse to Modern Faroese

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The Distribution of Definiteness Markers and the Growth of Syntactic Structure from Old Norse to Modern Faroese The Distribution of Definiteness Markers and the Growth of Syntactic Structure from Old Norse to Modern Faroese. A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2014 Pauline Harries School of Arts, Languages and Cultures List of Contents 1. Introduction 10 1.1 Aims and scope of the thesis 10 1.2 Background to Faroese 11 1.3 Introduction to the Insular Scandinavian 12 1.3.1 Ancestry and development 12 1.3.2 Faroese as an Insular Scandinavian language 14 1.3.3 The Noun Phrase in Faroese 18 1.4 Introduction to LFG 20 2. Definiteness Marking in Old Norse 23 2.1 Introduction 23 2.2 Previous literature on Old Norse 24 2.2.1 Descriptive literature 24 2.2.2 Theoretical literature 28 2.2.3 Origins of hinn 32 2.3 Presentation of Data 33 2.3.1 Zero definite marking 33 2.3.2 The hinn paradigm 37 2.3.2.1 The bound definite marker 37 2.3.2.2 The free definite marker 39 2.3.2.3 The other hinn 43 2.3.3 Demonstratives 44 2.3.3.1 Relative Clauses 48 2.3.4 Adjectival marking of definiteness 49 2.3.4.1 Definite adjectives in Indo-European 50 2.3.4.2 Definite adjectives in Old Norse 53 2.3.4.3 The meaning of weak versus strong 56 2.3.5 Summary of Findings 57 2.4 Summary and discussion of Old Norse NP 58 2.4.1 Overview of previous literature 59 2.4.2 Feature Distribution and NP structure 60 2.5 Summary of Chapter 66 3. Old Norse Noun Phrases and the Growth of Structure 68 3.1 Introduction 68 3.2 Previous Literature 69 3.2.1 The development of grammticalized discourse slots 69 3.2.2 Literature on Word Order in Old Norse 70 3.3 Presentation of data: word order variation and nominal focus 73 3.3.1 Adjectives and Word Order 74 3.3.2 Pronominal and Adnominal possessors 79 3.3.3 Demonstratives and Word Order 83 3.3.3.1 Pronominal demonstratives 84 3.3.3.2 Adnominal demonstratives 86 3.3.4 Relative Clauses 88 2 3.3.5 Summary of data 90 3.4 Analysis: Nominal Focus in Old Norse 91 3.4.1 Introduction 91 3.4.2 Word order and Focus 91 3.4.3 Nominal focus and i-structure 94 3.4.3.1 Previous accounts of i-structure 95 3.4.3.2 Presentational and Contrastive Focus 100 3.4.4 Nominal focus and f-structure 102 3.4.5 The development of hinn (the other) 105 3.4.6 The development of adjectives 106 3.4.7 The grammaticalization of non-contrastive hinn 107 3.5 Summary 108 4. Faroese Noun Phrases and the Growth of Structure 109 4.1 Introduction 109 4.2 Historical Faroese: Literature and Sources 110 4.3 Presentation of data: Faroese definiteness in diachrony 112 4.3.1 Medieval Faroese: Seyðabrævið and Húsavíkarbrøvini 113 4.3.2 The Revival Period: Faroese 1770-1890 119 4.3.2.1 Evangelium Sankta Matteusar 119 4.3.2.2 The Ballads 125 4.3.3 1890s to Modern Faroese 127 4.3.3.1 Definiteness: Føringatíðindi to Modern Faroese 128 4.3.3.2 Indefiniteness: Føringatíðindi to Modern Faroese 134 4.3.3.3 Demonstratives: Føringatíðindi to Modern Faroese 136 4.3.3.4 Adjectives: Føringatíðindi to Modern Faroese 138 4.3.4 Summary of Diacronic survey of Definiteness 141 4.4 Possessor-Possessee Ordering 142 4.4.1 Introduction 142 4.4.2 Previous Literature 142 4.4.3 Presentation of Data: 1890s to Present 146 4.4.3.1 Evidence from Føringatíðindi 147 4.4.3.2 Evidence from Modern Faroese 150 4.4.3.3 Factors Motivating Variation 155 4.5 Changes to Nominal Structure Old Norse>Modern Faroese 157 4.6 Analysis: the growth of DP structure 159 4.7 Summary 163 5. Double Definiteness in Modern Faroese 165 5.1 Introduction 165 5.2 Review of previous literature on Faroese double definiteness 166 5.2.1 Descriptive literature on Faroese double definiteness 167 5.2.2 Theoretical Literature on Faroese double definiteness 168 5.3 Presentation of data: double and single definiteness in Faroese 171 5.3.1 Introduction 171 5.3.2 The syntactic definiteness marker 172 5.3.3 The bound definiteness marker 182 3 5.3.4 Indefiniteness marking 183 5.3.5 Relative Cluases 185 5.3.6 Summary of findings 186 5.4 Analysis: feature distribution 187 6. Old Norse to Faroese: Synthesis to Analysis 194 6.1 Introduction 194 6.2 Case in Faroese 196 6.2.1 The decline of the genitive in Modern Faroese 198 6.2.2 The use of the genitive in Modern Faroese 199 6.3 Presentation of data: from synthesis to analysis 206 6.3.1 Prepositional Perphrasis 206 6.3.2 Partitives 209 6.3.3 Word to phrase marking: Faroese sa-possessive 210 6.3.3.1 Previous Literature 211 6.3.3.2 Sa-possessive and Danish/English s-possessive 212 6.3.3.3 The Origins of sa-possessive 217 6.4 Synthetic to analytic: evidence from clause structure 227 6.5 Summary of the findings 229 7. Conclusions 231 Word count 72, 662 4 List of Source Texts Old Norse and Faroese Old Norse (Abbreviations) BN: Brennu-Njáls saga. [Islenzk fornrit XII]. Edited with introduction and notes by Einar Ól. Sveinsson. 1956. Reykjavík: HiðÍslenzka Fornritafélag. Reference are to Page.Line. ER: Eiríks saga rauða in Eyrbyggja saga. [Islenzk fornrit IV]. Edited with introductionand notes by Einar Ól. Sveinsson and Matthias Þórðarsson. Year. Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka Fornritafélag. Reference are to Page: Line. Gunn: Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu. Edited by P.G. Foote and with translation by R. Quirk. 1957. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons. References are to Reference are to Page.Line. GS Grænlanda saga [Islenzk fornrit IV]. Eyrbyggja Saga. Edited with introduction. HiðÍslenzka Fornritafélag LX: Laxdæla saga in Laxdæla saga. [Islenzk fornrit V]. Edited with introduction and notes by Einar Ól. Sveinsson. Year. Reykjavík: HiðÍslenzka Fornritafélag. Reference are to Page.Line in this edition. VG: Víga-Glúms saga in Eyfirðinga sögur. [Islenzk fornrit IX]. Edited with introduction and notes by Jónas Kristjánsson. 1956. Reykjavík: HiðÍslenzka Fornritafélag. Reference are to Page.Line Old Faroese (Abbreviations) HUS Húsavíkarbrøvini. Jakob Jakobson (1907) Diplomatarium Færense. Føroskt Fodnabrævasavn. Miðaldar brøvupp til trúbótarskeiðid. Víð søguligum. Emil Thompsen. Tórshavn. ESM Evangelium Sankta Mateussar. Christian Matras (1973) Prentða týðing Shrøters 1823. Vol 1 Ljósmyndað útgáva av prentaðu bókini. Émil Thompsen: Tórhavn. SEYÐ Seyðabrævið Jóhan Hendrik W. Poulsen og Ulf Zachariasen; enskar týðingar: Michael Barnes & David R. Margolin; Tórshavn: Føroya fróðskaparfelag, 1971. BÍB Bíblian á netinum www.biblian.fo FØR Føringatíðindi 1890’s newspapers BAL Faroese Ballads 5 Modern Faroese (Abbreviations) Novels BØÐ Bøðilin Pär Lagerkvist MORG Í morgin er aftur ein dagur Odvørr Johansen SEB Sebastians hús Odvørr Johansen MET Metusalem Jógvan Isaksen NORÐ Norðlýsi Hjalmar Petursen (translator) SKUG Skuggaportrið Lene Kaaberbøl AB Í Abbasahúsi Guðrún Helgadóttir HP HP og Vitramannasteinurin Gunnar Hoydal(translator) SUM Summarhúsíð Odvørr Johansen BRAH Brahmeadellarnir Jóanes Nielsen DIM Dimmalætting (newspaper) KF Kringvarp Føroya (newspaper) FTS Faroese Corpus 6 Abstract Written broadly within a Lexical Functional Grammar Framework, this thesis provides a descriptive and theoretical account of definiteness in Insular Scandinavian from a synchronic and diachronic perspective. Providing evidence from Ancient Germanic to Old Norse to Modern Faroese, it is argued that the weak feature on the adjective has an important part to play in the historical narrative of definiteness marking in Faroese, alongside more traditional elements like the bound and free definite articles and demonstratives. Each of the features is read within the context of its nominal syntax and it is observed that there are recurrent pathways of change which each time result in the growth of syntactic structure and the redistribution of features. One of my principal findings for the Old Norse period was that the noun phrase had developed a FOC slot to the left edge of phrase. It is this focus domain which helps to explain the distribution of definiteness markers and which provides an account for the grammaticalization of the free and bound marker hinn. It is also this focus domain which eventually leads to the development of dedicated definite slots in the prenominal space and eventually to functional DP projection in Modern Faroese. This thesis provides new and detailed descriptive data on the definite noun phrase in Modern Faroese, a lesser studied Insular Scandinavian language. Since Faroese is widely reported to have ‘lost’ the genitive case in recent times, the above changes are read against a background of morphosyntactic change. A key finding of the thesis for the Modern language is that Faroese is becoming increasingly reliant on analytic marking, despite the fact that is is still a highly inflected language. It is this reliance on syntax which has rendered the genitive redundant, not, as has been suggested, the ‘loss’ of case which has led to the development of periphrastic alternatives. 7 Declaration I declare that no portion of the work referred to in this thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. 8 Copyright Statement 1. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes.
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