Forthcoming: A reference guide to the syntax of North American Norwegian

Kari Kinn (ed), Michael T. Putnam (ed)

Synopsis

North American Norwegian (NAmNo) is a diasporic heritage variety of Norwegian spoken primarily in the Upper Midwest of the United States. NAmNo has been in use since the mid-19th century, but it is now moribund. This volume serves as a synopsis of previous research focusing on the syntax of this language while also expanding upon these findings in key domains. Beyond the rich empirical description of facets of North American Norwegian syntax, the chapters in this volume also contribute to theory-building efforts from a Minimalist perspective. Kari Kinn and Michael T. Putnam begin the volume introducing the language and the theoretical preliminaries of aspects of the Minimalist Program found throughout the volume. The introductory chapter is followed by a detailed history of the emigration and language during the settlement period by Arnstein Hjelde. Brita Ramsevik Riksem and Mari Nygård explore the intricacies of agreement in determiner phrases, while Yvonne van Baal investigates its properties of definiteness. Kari Kinn rounds out the contributions on aspects of determiner phrases by taking a closer look at how possession is licensed in these structures. Shifting focus to the verbal and clausal domains, Kristin Eide’s chapter addresses the syntactic reflexes of tense, modality, and aspect in NAmNo. The structure of non-finite clauses is the theme of Michael T. Putnam and Åshild Søfteland’s contribution, which is followed up by Merete Anderssen, Helene R. Jensberg, Terje Lohndal, Björn Lundquist, and Marit Westergaard’s treatment of verb second (V2) word and finite verb placement. Ida Larsson and Kari Kinn analyze argument placement in NAmNo, focusing particularly on subject shift, object shift, and verb particles. Michael T. Putnam and Kari Kinn conclude the volume with an epilogue, highlighting the key empirical and theoretical findings of these contributions as well as charting a course for future research on the syntax of NAmNo. In summary, this volume is the first of its kind whose mission is not only to simultaneously summarize previous and ongoing research on the syntax of NAmNo, but to also demonstrate the important role heritage language syntax contributes to our understanding of the acquisition, attrition, change, and maintenance of heritage language syntax.

Chapters

  • Part I: Introduction and background
  • The syntax of North American Norwegian
    Introduction and theoretical preliminaries
    Kari Kinn, Michael T. Putnam
  • Norwegian emigration and language
    Arnstein Hjelde
  • Part II: The nominal domain
  • Agreement in North American Norwegian determiner phrases
    Brita Ramsevik Riksem, Mari Nygård
  • Definiteness in determiner phrases in North American Norwegian
    Yvonne van Baal
  • Possession in determiner phrases in North American Norwegian
    Kari Kinn
  • Part III: The verbal and clausal domains
  • Tense, modality and aspect in North American Norwegian
    Kristin Melum Eide
  • Non-finite complementation in North American Norwegian
    Michael T. Putnam, Åshild Søfteland
  • Verb Second word order and finite verb placement in North American Norwegian
    Merete Anderssen, Helene R. Jensberg, Terje Lohndal, Björn Lundquist, Marit Westergaard
  • Argument placement in North American Norwegian: Subject shift, object shift and verb particles
    Ida Larsson, Kari Kinn
  • Part IV: Conclusion
  • Epilogue
    Michael T. Putnam, Kari Kinn

Biographies

Kari Kinn, University of Bergen

Kari Kinn is Professor of Scandinavian Linguistics at the University of Bergen. Her research centers on comparative and diachronic syntax, with the Scandinavian languages as the main empirical focus area. Kinn is particularly interested in formal aspects of syntactic variation and change, and the effects of language contact. She has published widely on topics related to the structure of Old, Middle and Modern Norwegian, Norn, and heritage varieties of Scandinavian in North and Latin America.

Michael T. Putnam, Penn State University

Michael T. Putnam is Professor of German & Linguistics at Penn State University. Putnam’s research focuses on the structure of Germanic languages past and present, from both formal and experimental perspectives. He has a particular interest in the diasporic varieties of Germanic languages and issues related to bi/multilingualism more generally. He has published widely on issues related to syntax, morphology, and their interfaces, and has edited several volumes and books, including the Cambridge Handbook of Germanic Linguistics (2020) (with B. Richard Page) and Formal approaches to complexity in heritage language grammars (2024) (with Maria Polinsky), and has authored dozens of other scholarly articles and books, such as The Structural Design of Language (2013) (with Thomas S. Stroik) and Unbounded Dependency Constructions: Theoretical and Experimental Perspectives (2021) (with Rui P. Chaves).

Book cover

Published

November 5, 2024
LaTeX source on GitHub

Series

Open Germanic Linguistics

Online ISSN

2750-557X

Print ISSN

2750-5588
Cite as
Kinn, Kari & Putnam, Michael T. (eds.). Forthcoming. A reference guide to the syntax of North American Norwegian . (Open Germanic Linguistics). Berlin: Language Science Press.
Copyright (c) 2024 Kari Kinn, Michael T. Putnam

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.