Subject positions and their interaction with verb movement

Abstract

This paper discusses the distribution of subjects in embedded non-V2 clauses in Regional Northern Norwegian (ReNN) and its interaction with verb movement. Norwegian embedded clauses generally do not display verb movement across adverbs, but the subject may precede or follow various adverbs. However, verb movement is optionally allowed in ReNN, yielding verbs preceding or following adverbs. Such verb movement affects the position and interpretation of subjects in various ways. The interaction between the placement of the subject and the verb is accounted for in terms of predicate licensing, whereas the effect verb movement has on the subject's interpretation is argued to follow from how nominative case is licensed. © The Editorial Board of Studia Linguistica 2009.