Quirky subject

[6] One piece of evidence in support of this proposal is the observation that nominative can also mark left-dislocated NPs, appellatives and some objects in the active in Icelandic.

Icelandic was argued to be the only modern language with quirky subjects,[4] but other studies investigating languages like Basque,[7] Faroese,[5][8][6][9] German,[5] Gujarati,[10] Hindi,[11] Hungarian,[12] Kannada,[13] Korean,[14] Laz,[15] Malayalam,[16] Marathi,[17] Russian,[18][19][20] Spanish,[21][22][23] and Telugu[24] show that they also possess quirky subjects.

[25] In superficially similar constructions of the type seen in Spanish me gusta "I like", the analogous part of speech (in this case me) is not a true syntactical subject.

Dative-subjects, for example, quite often correspond with predicates indicating sensory, cognitive, or experiential states across a large number of languages.

[3] In Icelandic, this is shown below where the dative pronoun subject Honum is only grammatical when binding the anaphor sínum: Honumihe.DATvarwasoftoftenhjálpaðhelpedafbyforeldrumparentssínumi/*hansihis.[+REFL]/his.

[3][5][4] To illustrate, Icelandic shows subject-controlled PRO with a nominative DP: ÉgiI.NOMvonasthopetilfor[PROiPRO.ACCaðtovantalackekkinotpeninga]money.ACCÉgi vonast til [PROi að vanta ekki peninga]I.NOM hope for PRO.ACC to lack not money.ACC'I hope not to lack money'Similarly, in Laz, the same can be seen: Bere-kichild-ERGPROiPRO.DATlayç’-epedog-PL.NOMo-limb-uNMLZ-love-3.ERGgor-um-swant-IPFV-3amabuta-s̹k’urin-enAPPL-fear-IPFV-3Bere-ki PROi layç’-epe o-limb-u gor-um-s ama a-s̹k’urin-enchild-ERG PRO.DAT dog-PL.NOM NMLZ-love-3.ERG want-IPFV-3 but APPL-fear-IPFV-3'The child wants to love the dogs, but s/he fears'A reduced relative may only appear in as a subject position in a reduced relative clause.

Icelandic quirky subjects are not able to be relativized on: *[____i____.DATekni]drivenbíll-inncar-the.NOM*[____i ekni] bíll-inn____.DAT driven car-the.NOM'Intended: the driven car'Laz quirky subjects are able to be relativized on: *[____i____.DATma]1.NOMlimb-erilove.PTCPbereichild.NOM*[____i ma] limb-eri berei____.DAT 1.NOM love.PTCP child.NOM'the child who loved me'In Icelandic, some verbs (e.g., telja, álíta) can have their complement in the 'Exceptional Case Marking' (ECM), also known as the 'Accusativus-cum-Infinitivo' (AcI) or 'Subject-to-Object Raising' (SOR) construction.

[6] The ECM construction occurs when a sentence of the form subject-finite verb-X is selected by verbs such as telja, álíta as a CP complement (embedded clause).

The following sentence is ungrammatical: *ÉgI.NOMtelbelieveostinumcheese-the.DAThafahave.INFálfurinnelf-the.NOMstoliðstolen*Ég tel ostinum hafa álfurinn stoliðI.NOM believe cheese-the.DAT have.INF elf-the.NOM stolenI believe the elf to have stolen the cheese.An example of subject-to-object raising in German: IchI.NOMseheseeihnihe.ACCti dastheHaushouse.ACCverlassenleaveIch sehe ihni ti das Haus verlassenI.NOM see he.ACC {} the house.ACC leaveI see him leave the house.The conjunction reduction test is also known as the subject ellipsis test.

[6] In coordinated structures, the subject of the second conjunct can be left out if it is coreferential (i.e., coindexed) with the subject in the first conjunct but not if it is coreferential with the object: ÁlfurinniElf-the.NOMstalstoleostinumcheese-the.DATogandeiebauðinvitedbræðrumbrotherssínumhis.REFLítomatdinnerÁlfurinni stal ostinum og ei bauð bræðrum sínum í matElf-the.NOM stole cheese-the.DAT and e invited brothers his.REFL to dinnerThe elf stole the cheese and (he) invited his brothers to dinner.The following example is ungrammatical: *ÉgI.NOMhittimetálfinnielf-the.ACCogandeiebauðinvitedmérmeítomatdinner*Ég hitti álfinni og ei bauð mér í matI.NOM met elf-the.ACC and e invited me to dinnerI met the elf and he invited me to dinner.The Quirky Subject Hierarchy (QSH) exists to governs non-nominative subjects based on three subjecthood tests.

The QSH governs quirky subjects in Icelandic, Hindi, German, Basque, Laz, Faroese, Gujarati, Hungarian, Kannada, Korean, Malayalam, Marathi, Russian, Spanish, and Telugu.

However, the standard analysis does not sufficiently explain why lexical cases are overwritten in several languages, such as Faroese and Imbabura Quechua.