Difference between revisions of "ÞAÐ"

Revision as of 11:11, 22 July 2010

The object pronoun ÞAÐ is always tagged PRO. The subject pronoun ÞAÐ is tagged as PRO in any syntactic context where it *never* disappears under subject-finite-verb inversion. In Icelandic, when the finite verb fronts over the subject under V-to-C movement in matrix clauses or embedded topicalizations, truly non-expletive ÞAÐ will still surface in subject position, but truly expletive ÞAÐ will disappear. In any syntactic context in which ÞAÐ would disappear under subject-verb inversion, it is tagged ES (in accordance with Caitlin Light's Early New High German corpus). Such contexts include, at least: weather expressions, impersonals, and existentials.

ÞAÐ is tagged ES even in contexts where there is inter-speaker or inter-text (or diachronic) variation with regard to whether it disappears.

See Expletives also, for *exp*, which is the empty category corresponding to "(ES ÞAÐ)". Note that when ÞAÐ disappears under verb-movement, "(NP-SBJ *exp*)" is only inserted in the sentence if there is no other possible subject (e.g. it is not inserted in subject-postposition constructions).

ÞAÐ meaning AÐ

When ÞAÐ means AÐ it is tagged C, lemmatized að, and parsed accordingly. Examples of this can be found in Oddur Gottskálksson's translation of the New Testament.

(IP-SUB-SPE (VBPI sagða-sagða)
   (NP-SBJ (PRO-N eg-ég))
   (NP-OB2 (PRO-D yður-þú))
   (CP-THT-SPE (C það-að)
	       (IP-SUB-SPE (NP-SBJ (Q-N enginn-enginn))
			   (MDPI fær-fá)
			   (PP (P til-til)
			       (NP (PRO-G mín-ég)))
			   (VBN komið-koma)
			   (PP (P nema-nema)
			       (CP-ADV-SPE (C að-að)
					   (IP-SUB-SPE (NP-SBJ (PRO-D honum-hann))
						       (BEPS sé-vera)
						       (NP-OB1 (PRO-A það-það))
						       (VAN gefið-gefa)
						       (PP (P af-af)
							   (NP (NP-POS (PRO-D mínum-minn))
							       (N-D föður-faðir)))))))))))))