Case in Layers: Boom and Bust in North Germanic Datives Peter Svenonius CASTL, University of Tromsø Edisyn 4, Donostia/San Sebastián June 21-23, 2010 1 Overview (1) Dative in North Germanic languages a. Icelandic b. Faroese c. Övdalian (Älvdalen, Sweden) d. Møre, Romsdal and other dialects spoken south of Trondheim e. Norrbothnian dialects in Northern Sweden (2) Two kinds of difference among these dative systems: a. Differences in morphological exponence of dative b. Differences in syntactic distribution of dative DPs (3) An apparent correlation (but one which I will downplay) a. The languages with many exponents for dative have many con- texts for dative b. The languages with few exponents for dative have few contexts for dative (4) Some things we don’t see a. *K=P: Dative systematically replaced by P b. *WYSIWYG: Dative syntax only where dative morphology is overt c. *Post-syntactic K: Dative assigned according to postsyntactic or nonsyntactic principles 1