Icelandic Morphosyntax and Argument Structure

364 Pages·2012·2.06 MB·English

Icelandic Morphosyntax and Argument Structure
by
Jim Wood
A dissertationsubmittedinpartial fulfillment
oftherequirementsforthedegreeof
DoctorofPhilosophy
DepartmentofLinguistics
NewYork University
May,2012
AlecMarantz— Advisor
Dedication
To mymother,Mary Wood-Gauthier.
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Acknowledgments
Ioweahugedebtofgratitudetomanypeople,startingwithmyadvisor,AlecMarantz.
I started taking classes with Alec from the first semester I was here, when Amanda Dye,
Inna Livitz and I decided to take his morphology class. Alec’s classes were as inspiring
as they were fascinating. He always managed to make language look even more mys-
terious than it already did, while simultaneously making a convincing argument that we
were making real progress toward understanding it. He was also the perfect advisor, in
every capacity. He always found timeto meet, and in our meetings, he always hit all the
relevant points: from the details of my research, to my progress on writing and updates
on submissions, to administrative details in the department. I always looked forward to
my meetings with Alec, and I was never disappointed. The lessons I learned from Alec
extendfarbeyondlinguistics,andI’llalwaysbegratefulfortheopportunitytolearnfrom
him.
To the rest of my dissertation committee, Chris Barker, Halldór Ármann Sigurðsson,
Stephanie Harves, Richie Kayne, I am also deeply indebted.1 Chris Barker was a won-
derful teacher and DGS chair from the start; I can’t imagine my first couple of years
without Chris around, and I probably would never have attempted to go near semantics
if it weren’t for him. He always had the most succinct and sound advice, and I almost
never knew what he was going to say next. In the past couple of years, he helped me in
many ways, from having exactly the right comments during practice talks to helping me
contextualizemy workon Icelandicsyntaxwithinthebroaderlinguisticworld.
Naturally,Ifound Halldór’swork throughmystudyofIcelandic syntax,butstudying
1WhenIlistnamesinalphabeticalorder,IwillalphabetizeIcelandersbytheirfirstnames,asisdonein
Iceland.
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Halldór’s work did much more than teach me about Icelandic (though it did that too, of
course!). His work fundamentally changed the way I thought about language, and I still
remember where I was sitting when I read his paper “Meaningful silence, meaningless
sounds” some years ago. I first met Halldór when our department was lucky enough to
havehim as a colloquiumspeaker, and he has been a constant source ofsupport, encour-
agement and inspiration ever since. I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay him for
the amount of time he has spent answering my emails, commenting on my papers, and
meetinginperson wheneverwewerein thesameplace(beit NewYork, Iceland orSwe-
den). It has been an enormous priviledge to work with him and learn from him, and I
continue to feel humbled and amazed at being able to talk about the details of Icelandic
withsuchan interestingthinkerand unbelieveablyskilledlinguist.
When Stephanie Harves came to NYU in my third year, I started working with her
almost immediately. She taught extremely interesting seminars on argument structure,
whichallowedmetocontinueworkIhadstartedinAlec’sclasseswhileatthesametime
inspiringmetolookatmoreandmorechallengingtopics. Stephanieshowedusworldsof
puzzlesandtantalizingconstellationsofdataextendingallacrossthelinguisticglobe,and
constantlypushedustofindwaystoaddressandappreciateallofit. Muchoftheworkin
thisdissertationandelsewherewouldneverhavegottendoneifitweren’tforStephanie’s
support. I also learned from her how to be a teacher, when I worked as her Teacher’s
Assistant for a very memorable undergraduate syntax class. She worked tirelessly with
me, treating me like a co-teacher rather than an assistant. I learned more about teaching
thatsemesterthananyother.
Finally,RichieKaynehasbeenaconstantsourceofinspirationandcriticaldiscussion.
His Syntax III class was possiblythemostproductivesingleclass ofmy graduatecareer,
and at least several other students felt the same way. He has always challenged me on
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my own terms, with fair, hard questions. He makes it impossibleto take almostanything
for granted; at the same time, he takes you into linguisticterritory no one else goes into.
The depth and delicate sophistication of Richie’s understanding of natural language is
astonishing,and it hasbeen an enormousprivilegeto studywithhim.
OutsideofmycommitteeIwanttothankalltheotherNYUlinguisticsprofessorsthat
Ilearned fromor worked withwhileI was here. First and foremost,I havelearned an in-
credibleamountfrom Chris Collinsand AnnaSzabolcsi. Chris isan outstandingteacher,
andIhavebeenfortunatetohavetakenmanyclasseswithhim,fromSyntaxII,toseveral
seminars, to Field Methods (which he co-taught with John Singler). I continue to work
on projects that were inspired by his classes. Anna, in addition to teaching Semantics
II (for my year), was kind enough to teach an incredibly memorable seminar on control,
the fallout of which has shown up in almost every conversation Neil Myler, Inna Livitz
andIhavehad aboutsyntaxsince. Anna’scommentsand criticismsonpracticetalksand
papers were one of the most valuable aspects of studying at NYU. I am also grateful to
MarkBaltinforworkingwithmeontheargumentstructure‘boundedsources’foralong,
interestingtime;toPaulPostal,forsomegreatmeetingsandfortakingthetimetogiveus
amini-courseonArcPair/MetagraphGrammar;toLiinaPylkkänenforteachingmethe
basics of Neurolinguistics and involving me in her lab’s experimental work for my first
coupleofyears atNYU; andtoPhilippeSchlenkerforbeingsuch anoutstandingseman-
tics teacher, and such an enthusiastic researcher. Outside of syntax/semantics, I want to
thank AdamantiosI. Gafos, Maria Gouskova,Greg Guy and John Singler, with a special
thanks to John Singler for chairing my first qualifying paper and for the Field Methods
classhetaughtwithChris Collins.
I would also like to thank everyone who shared my time at NYU with me. First and
foremost,AmandaDyeandInnaLivitz,theothertwostudentsfrommycohort,sharedan
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office with me for five years, and I am grateful for every bit of it. From every Simpson’s
triviaquestion(whereAmandaalmostalwaysbeatme),toeverytimeweclosedthedoors
totalkaboutwhateveritwasthatwedidn’twantotherpeopletohear;fromeverystatistics
examtoeveryanxiousorjoyfulmomentweshared. Iwillreallymissyoutwo! Ialsoowe
aspecial thank youto Simon Charlow,who joinedouroffice threeyears ago, for helping
me with semantics on so many occasions, and for providing many, many laughs over
the past few years. Special thanks also to Tricia Irwin, Inna Livitz, and Neil Myler for
meeting up in the pub every week to talk about syntax; I’ll probably miss that more than
almostanythingelse. Thankstoalltheothersyntaxandsemanticsfolks,whomadeNYU
such an exciting place to study syntax, including especially Eric Besson, Jon Brennan,
AndreaCattaneo,DanLassiter,TomLeu,TimLeffel,LisaLevinson,LazizNchare,Txuss
Martín, Salvador Mascarenhas, Laura Rimell, Oana Sa˘vescu, Mike Solomon, Violeta
Vázquez-Rojas,andmorerecentlyMeeraSaeedAlKaabi,RuthBrillman,ItamarKastner,
Jeremy Kuhn, K-C Jason Lin, Katie Wallace, Linmin Zhang, and Vera Zu. Thanks to all
theotherswhomadeNYUsowonderfulandinteresting,includingMaryamBakht,Carina
Bauman,KaraBecker,VincentChanethom,ElizabethCoggshall,SuzanneDikker,Danny
Erker, Nicole Holliday, Sangjin Hwang, Sang-Im Lee, Kim Leiken, Tal Linzen, Sean
Martin,TimothyMathes,TuuliMorrill,LuizaNewlin-Lukowicz,EmilyNguyen,Jennifer
Nycz, Marcos Rohena-Madrazo, Kevin Roon, Allison Shapp, Cara Shousterman, Daniel
Szeredi, MikeTaylor,JamesWhang, and AmyWong.
After my linguistic home at NYU, I owe my most immediate thanks for this disser-
tation to the Icelanders (in addition to Halldór) who helped make it happen. I started
studying Icelandic when I was in the Air Force stationed in Keflavík, Iceland, where I
worked as a rescue helicopter crew chief. Studying Icelandic while I was there is what
ultimately led me to linguistics. Most recently, I have been able to conduct research in
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IcelandwiththesupportofaLeifurEiríkssonFoundationFellowship.2 Inmyrecenttrips
to Iceland, Iowea special thanks to EinarFreyr Sigurðssonfor hours and hours offasci-
natingdiscussions,which,inaway,defined mytripstoIceland. Einar’ssubtleandastute
observations about Icelandic are unlike anyone else’s that I’ve met. I also owe a special
thanks to Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson, for agreeing to sponsor me in my trips to Iceland, for
being so supportive and encouraging during those trips, and for being so generous with
histime. ThankstoAntonKarlIngasonforhelpingmegetstartedonsomeofmyearliest
research projects on Icelandic; to Ásgrímur Angantýsson for all the great conversations
in Reykjavíkcoffee shops; to EiríkurRögnvaldssonfor all the subtle,importantobserva-
tionsthatnooneelsemade;toHlífÁrnadóttirfortalkingaboutsomanysentencesinsuch
detailatsomeverycrucialtimes(andforsavingmeandEinarfromhavingtowalkhome
from Háma in the snowstorm!); to Höskuldur Þráinsson for many careful discussions of
Icelandic sentences, for contextualizing the development of the study of Icelandic syn-
tax,aswellasforalltheinterestingstoriesandanecdotesthatheisfamousfor;toKristín
JóhannsdóttirforthegreatconversationsaboutsemanticsandIcelandicinmymostrecent
trip(Ilookforwardtomore!);toSigríðurSigurjónsdóttirforherenthusiasticsupportand
help, and for having me over for dinner with Joan Maling; to Theódóra Torfadóttir for
helping me with one of my first projects on Icelandic; and to Þórhallur Eyþórsson for
many interesting meetings that extended far beyond my dissertation work into areas I
hope to study in the next few years. While we are in Iceland, thanks also to Matthew
Whelpton, for his comments on my work on several occasions, including a memorable
conversation about denominal -st verbs in Háma. And it only feels right, at this point, to
thankJoanMalingforthegreatconversationsinGermanyandatSigga’splaceinIceland.
2HugethankstotheLeifurEiríkssonFoundationformakingthispossible,andto BjörgJóhannsdóttir
fororiginallysuggestingthatIapply!Ican’timaginewhatthisdissertationwouldhavelookedlikewithout
theworkIwasabletodoinIceland.
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Joanis somethingofahero ofmine,soit isalwaysan honortotalk toher. Goingfurther
backacoupleofyears,Ioweanenormousdebtofgratitudetothenon-linguistIcelanders
who patiently worked with me in New York City for many meetings of many hours, in-
cludingHallvarðurÁsgeirsson,JúlíaHermannsdóttir,and especially Björg Jóhannsdóttir
andErlaSkúladóttir. WorkingwithBjörgandErla(thoughIdon’tknowiftheyhaveever
met!) built the empirical foundation for the work in this thesis and a number of other
projects. Onmorethanoneoccasion,theirobservationsdrasticallychangedthedirection
of my research. Björg also introduced me to what became one my favorite coffee shops
towork inin NYC. Égget ekkiþakkað ykkurnægilegamikið!
In thepast few years, NYU has had alot ofvisitorswho helped meinvariousimpor-
tant ways (whether they realize it or not), including David Adger, Gabriela Alboiu, Judy
Bernstein,EefjeBoef,JoanBresnan,JeroenvanCraenenbroeck, DanielHarbour,Anders
Holmberg, Dalina Kallulli, Jason Kandybowicz, Ivona Kucˇerova, Sophia Malamud, Lu-
cie Medova, Dennis Ott, Tom Roeper, Poppy Slocum, Gabriela Soare, Edward Stabler,
Adam Szczegielniak, Tarald Taraldsen, Arhonto Terzi, and Christina Tortora. Thanks to
DavidAdgerand DanielHarbourfortheseriesoftalksonj -features, argumentstructure
and phrase structure that they gave at NYU in April 2011. It was an incredible and stim-
ulatingexperience, onethat continuesto informtheway I thinkaboutlanguage. Iexpect
to engage more directly with their work in the future than I was able to in this disserta-
tion. Thanksalso to DalinaKallullifor manyinterestingand helpful conversationsabout
argumentalternationsand non-activevoiceinAlbanian.
There are a number of linguists outside of NYU who I have learned from and in-
teracted with in various ways, and who have helped me tremendously or provided great
conversations along the way, including Jessica Coon, Marcel Den Dikken, Vera Dvorak,
DaveEmbick,JosefFruehwald,AndrewGarrett,LisaGreen,HeidiHarley,GaryHolland,
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Larry Horn, Norbert Hornstein, Alexandra Ioannidou, Gianina Iordachioaia, Michelle
Johnson,JóhannaBarðdal, TonyKroch, GeorgeLakoff,OksanaLaleko,Howard Lasnik,
JulieLegate,ChristenMadsen,Jean-PhilippeMarcotte,SamMchombo,LineMikkelsen,
Edmund O’Neill, Teresa O’Neill, Alexander Pfaff, Jeremy Rafal, Henrik Rosenkvist,
Sara Schmelzer, Hooi Ling Soh, Eve Sweetser, Christina Tortora, Matthew Tucker, Joel
Wallenberg, Alexander Williams, Charles Yang and Raffaella Zanuttini. Going to NYU
comes withthebenefit that you can go rightup thestreet to CUNY and take classes with
MarcelDenDikken. Marcel’sclasseswerealwaysengaging,fast-paced,andintenselyin-
teresting. Heisagreatteacher,andabrilliantsyntactician,andIamfortunatetohavehad
thechancetolearnfromhim. ThankstothefolksatLundUniversityformakingmyvisit
there in November2011 so memorable, especially Verner Egerland, Halldór Sigurðsson,
Marit Julien, Christer Platzack and Dominika Skrzypek. Thanks to Artemis Alexiadou,
Marcel Pitteroff, Florian Schäfer for inviting me to Stuttgart and working with me there.
I actually owe a special thanks to Artemis, whose 2007 LSA Summer School class on
unaccusativityplantedtheseedthateventuallygrewintothisdissertation.3 Ihopethatthe
influenceofFlorian Schäfer’s work on thisdissertationis obvious,butifnot,let mestate
outright that his work provided the primary model and most direct or immediateinspira-
tion for the approach pursued here. Thanks to Peter Svenonius, for his fascinating LSA
SummerSchoolclassonprepositionsin2007,whichultimatelyinspiredhugeportionsof
thisthesis,as well as forextremelyinterestingdiscussionsinIceland in August2011.
I want to mention two people who we lost during my time as a graduate student,
because I will never forget them, here or elsewhere. The first is Kyle Major, our friend
and colleague at NYU. The best way I can think of to describe Kyle is to mention the
3PeterSvenonius’sclassonprepositionsthatsamesummershouldgetitsduecredithereaswell,though
Ididn’tnoticetheconnectionbetweenthetwountilseveralyearslater,whileworkingwithBjörgandErla.
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time he bought me a helicopter lego set for my birthday; I haven’t touched a lego since
I was a kid, but I did fix helicopters in the military for five years. That’s the kind of
person Kyle was—thoughtful, quirky, and full of surprises. I’ll never forget him; he
made life at NYU better. The second is Gunnar Hrafn Hrafnbjargarson, who I nevermet
in person. Gunnar was one of the first linguists I interacted with outside of my home
university (which was University of New Hampshire, at the time), and he was the first
Icelandic linguistI was ever in touch with. I’ll always feel grateful to him; hehelped me
on numerous occasions, and given the number of times I’ve seen him cited in footnotes
forpersonalcommunications,Iclearlywasn’talone. Gunnarwasahardworkinglinguist
and his presence continues to reverberate through the field that he gaveso much to, even
beyondhis ownpapers.
Thanks to everyone who has worked on collaborative projects with me over the
years, including Mark Baltin, Hélène Blondeau, Chris Collins, Einar Freyr Sigurðsson,
Stephanie Guitard, Halldór Ármann Sigurðsson, Inna Livitz, Neil Myler, Naomi Nagy,
Liina Pylkkänen, Oana Sa˘vescu and Jason Shaw. I’m lucky to have worked with you.
Thanks to Larry Horn and Raffaella Zanuttini for involving me in the LSA 2011 work-
shop on grammatical variation in North American English. Thanks to our department
administrators, Aura Holgin and Teresa Leung, for helping me with so many different
kinds of issues, so many times. Thanks to the linguists that got me started at the Univer-
sity of New Hampshire, namely Naomi Nagy, Shelly Lieber, and Mary Clark. I would
neverhaveended up at NYU inthefirst placeifit weren’t forthem. I oweNaomi inpar-
ticular a debt of gratitude for continuing to work with me throughout my first few years
at NYU.
Finally, thanks to my family for really being there for me these past few years. To
my brotherJohn, what can I say? It’s been amazing livingnext to each other forso long.
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