Detail #203: Quirky-Case Subjects in Isolating Languages

Imagine an isolating language that typologically has evolved a lot like English, but perhaps slightly further. However, it retains three or four cases for its personal pronouns. However, now we'll take a look at its properties before becoming isolating and after.

mar-ka ǵudu-rek wubin-t

man-acc wisdom-gen/dat possess_as_intrinsic_quality-3sg
the man has wisdom/ is wise

wáli-rek lar-rek du’ik-t
stone-gen/dat moss-gen/dat overflow with/exude-3sg
stones exude moss (a mistaken belief about how moss on stones grows)

Much like in Old Norse, however, what we translate as subjects here are not really  subjects. They differ syntactically speaking, and as far as congruence goes as well. The verbs in the example sentences have 3sg markers, but so would they even if the "subject" were any other person or number - 3sg doubles as a neutral present marker. This lack of real subjecthood for non-nominative subjects of these verbs means that:

• no reflexive pronouns can refer back to these subjects
• no gapping over coordination is permitted, i.e. "(the stone) remains there and [____] exudes moss to this day" is not permissible, nor "the stone exudes moss and [_____] is quite magnificent really"
• the verb cannot be used as an imperative
• no extraction (i.e. no constructions along the lines of "stones seem to exude moss", but rather you are forced to construct it as "it seems that stones exude moss"
• unlike subjects, they are not obligatory; however, unlike subjects, they cannot be implicit

These cases have been lost except for the pronouns, as stated, and so we now get:

mar ubĩ xudu
man have_as_intrinsic_quality wisdom

merge ubĩ pura
me-acc have_as_intrinsic_quality toughness

weyi dyik lar
stone exude moss

merek dyik tur
I-gen exude sweat

What is retained, however, is that these verbs do not, syntactically speaking have subjects. The (partial) list of exceptional properties carries over - the subjects of these verbs are, for a while at least, exceptional. Over time, regular subject properties bleed over to them due to analogy with other subjects (and maybe the case marking on the pronominal subjects is dropped).