Case Marking, Wh-Dependencies and Quantification in Old Irish Syntax

• Applicant: Dr. Elliott Lash
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages ; Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics ; Individual Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 450039117

Irish is one of the earliest attested vernacular languages of Europe, possessing a manuscript tradition going back to around 600AD. Old Irish is the stage of the language found in early medieval manuscripts written between 600AD to 900AD. There is also Old Irish data found as copies in later manuscripts. Much of this data is now available in digital form, either in raw-text format in CELT (https://celt.ucc.ie/) and TLH (https://www.ucd.ie/tlh/) or in various POS-tagged and syntactically parsed databases such as POMIC (https://www.dias.ie/celt/celt-publications-2/celt-the-parsed-old-and-middle-irish-corpus-pomic/) and CoRPH (https://chronhib.maynoothuniversity.ie/chronhibWebsite/home). Goal of this project is to use these resources to develop detailed formal (i.e. explanatory and descriptively adequate) analyses of three interrelated issues in Old Irish syntax. The broad categories into which these fall are case marking, wh-dependencies, and quantification. More specifically the project consists of five case studies: (a) an investigation of wh-agreement and suppletion in comparative clauses (clauses that mark the standard of comparison after adjectives in the comparative degree), (b) an investigation of how a certain pronoun is used to mark wh-dependency or successive cyclicity in comparatives, (c) the comparison/contrast of comparative clauses and phrasal (dative) comparatives with regard to the scope of quantifiers, (d) the interaction between quantificational predicates (e.g. group predicates) and the use of dative case in marking the sentential subject, (e) the use of dative case as a predicate marker in adnominal pronoun constructions, i.e. constructions in which a pronoun is used to explicitly express person in a noun phrase. The range of phenomena covered by this project corresponds to three major syntactic domains: CP (wh-dependencies), TP (subject marking), and NP (phrasal comparatives, adnominal pronoun constructions). The project will therefore result in a much sharper and more holistic picture of Old Irish syntax. Moreover, the investigations described above will not only improve the general understanding of Old Irish syntax, but will also situate the language within existing cross-linguistic typologies of wh-agreement, quantifier usage in comparative contexts, non-canonical subject marking and adnominal pronoun constructions. The results will thus have relevance for an audience consisting of Irish scholars and researchers working on comparative syntax within the generative tradition as a whole.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Ireland, Netherlands, USA
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Dustin Bowers; Dr. Aaron Griffith; Dr. Fangzhe Qiu