In the so-called 'double definiteness' varieties of Scandinavian (Norwegian, Swedish, and Faroese), a definite nominal phrase that contains no adjective or numeral has a suffixed article but no prenominal determiner. But if there are adjectives or numerals in a definite nominal phrase, the suffixed article co-occurs with a prenominal determiner. In my analysis, this pattern is related to the requirement ...

This article reports on a study of three children acquiring a dialect of Norwegian which allows two different word orders in certain types of WH-questions, verb second (V2) and and verb third (V3). The latter is only allowed after monosyllabic WH-words, while the former, which is the result of verb movement, is the word order found in all other main clauses in the language. It is shown that both V2 ...

This paper explores how the process of relexification can contribute to the understanding of the genesis of the new Norwegian dialect of Sappen in Nordreisa. The dialect has emerged in the context of language shift from Finnish to Norwegian, and the dialect syntax has features that might be regarded as products of relexification. One example is declarative main clauses with the finite verb in the ...

In this paper we will discuss how economy principles interact with cues in the input in bilingual first language acquisition. We will look at the acquisition of verb placement in a child acquiring English and Norwegian simultaneously. Based on data from this child, it will be argued that when faced with ambiguous cues with respect to the verb movement parameter, children do not necessarily adopt the ...

This article deals with the L2 acquisition of differences between Norwegian and English passives, and presents data to show that the acquisition of these differences by Norwegian L2 acquirers of English cannot be fully explained by positive evidence, cues, conservativism or economy. Rather, it is argued, it is natural to consider whether indirect negative evidence may facilitate acquisition by ...

Most Slavic prefixes can be assigned to one of two large cate- gories, lexical and superlexical. The lexical prefixes are like Germanic particles, in having resultative meanings, often spatial, but often id- iosyncratic. The superlexical prefixes are like adverbs or auxiliary verbs, having aspectual and quantificational meanings. I present a syntactic account of the two types of prefix, arguing ...

The thesis deals with two of the most interesting quantificational verbal prefixes (measure prefixes) in Czech, namely po- and na-. Po- means essentially ‘a little’ or ‘relatively small quantity’, na- contributes the notion of ‘relatively large quantity’, it means something like ‘a lot’. Although their semantics seems to be of the same type (just the polarity is opposite), the claim is that the two ...

This thesis examines two phonological processes in which vocalic features assimilate to neighboring segments with complex consonant-vowel interactions, namely emphasis spread in Cairene Arabic and lowered larynx assimilation in Buchan Scots. I propose a non-linear analysis in the framework of the Parallel Structures Model (PSM) of feature geometry (Morén 2003). This model provides a unified account ...

This thesis is an attempt to identify the position for particles in English and prefixes in Russian in the context of the nature of the prepositional phrase. In order to solve this problem I examine the nature of verb-particle constructions and prefixed verbs in English and Russian respectively. I show that particles and prefixes have much in common. Russian prefixes as well as English particles ...

Denne oppgaven ser på utviklingen i språkvitenskapen i Norge i perioden 1965 - 1995. Fokus er på overgangen mellom historisk-komparativ språkvitenskap, strukturalisme og generativ grammatikk, og forholdet mellom disse. Det blir tatt utgangspunkt i vitenskapsteoretikeren Larry Laudan og hans teorier om vitenskapelig utvikling.