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Icelandic Word Order and Binary Branching

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Anders Holmberg
Anders Holmberg
Affiliation:
Lillbybacken 9, 5tr., S-16372 Spånga, Sweden
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Abstract

Certain word order facts in Icelandic have been claimed, by several linguists, to provide evidence that Icelandic has no VP constituent (in s-structure) in sentences where the main verb is finite. If correct, this entails that Icelandic phrase structure is not always binary branching, contradicting the hypothesis that all phrase structure is binary branching. It is shown to be incorrect. A new theory of Icelandic sentence structure is presented, based on Platzack (in press), but strictly observing binary branching. The theory presented is shown to be empirically more adequate than the less constrainedĀ-nary branching theories.

Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , December 1985 , pp. 161 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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