The use of case forms in Modern Danish - an empirical study

Eva Skafte Jensen*, Jørgen Schack, Jan Heegård

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

This paper investigates the distribution of the nominative (nom) and the oblique (obl) form in personal pronouns in Modern Danish. As per a primary rule, pronoun NPs functioning as subjects are typically in the nom form, whilst the obl form is used in all other syntactic functions. Nonetheless, this rule is subject to certain exceptions in a number of constructions. In this paper, we present four studies concerning the distribution of nom and obl in selected constructions, where instances of variation are observed. These investigations are based on data from two separate corpora, one representing written language and the other, spoken language. Our findings suggest that both stylistic and structural characteristics, alongside considerations concerning processing, significantly influence the distribution of nom and obl. Furthermore, we note a considerable disparity in distribution when comparing spoken and written da
Original languageEnglish
JournalActa Linguistica Hafniensia: International Journal of Linguistics
Volume55
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)182-215
ISSN0374-0463
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Keywords

  • Faculty of Humanities
  • Modern Danish
  • nominative and oblique forms
  • personal pronouns
  • case marking
  • case forms
  • register
  • written language
  • spoken language

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