On the relative order of central sentence adverbs in the Insular Scandinavian languages

Abstract

This paper discusses the relative order of certain classes of central sentence adverbs in Icelandic and Faroese. The relative order of the logical subject and central sentence adverbs in double subject constructions is also taken under consideration. The questionnaire data shows that the relative orders of adverbs that follow Cinque’s (1999) hierarchy receive more positive judgments than the orders that do not exhibit the predicted patterns in both languages, but the contrasts are not always as striking as one might expect. Examples of three adverbs within the same clause get rather negative judgments in general, but in case such orders are accepted the judgments are also in accordance with Cinque’s (1999) hierarchy. In double subject constructions, however, the sentence adverbs usually must precede the logical subject in Faroese while in Icelandic both orders are fine for most speakers. This is consistent with recent research showing that adverb placement is somewhat less free in Faroese than in Icelandic.