Nøgne subjekter i dansk

Henrik Høeg Müller

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

With starting point in a discussion of the differences in distribution between, on the one hand, Bare Plural count nouns (BPs) and mass nouns, and, on the other, Bare Singular count nouns (BSs) in argument position, this paper shows that Danish BSs under certain conditions can serve as subjects in regular categorical sentences, i.e. outside special types of discourse such as proverbs, newspaper headlines, etc. However, contrary to BP- and mass noun-subjects, BSs in subject position are non-referential and do not imply existential presupposition. On these grounds, it is suggested that BS-subjects are, in fact, semantic objects which due to the lack of realisation of nominal functional categories act as property-denoting modifiers restricting the denotation of a covert predicate.
Original languageDanish
JournalNy forskning i grammatik
Volume25
Pages (from-to)130-147
Number of pages18
ISSN1902-1291
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018
Externally publishedYes

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