Icelandic declarative V1 : a brief overview

This squib is a brief state of the art overview of declarative V1 in Icelandic, old and modern. Three(relevant) types of such clauses are discussed: Narrative Inversion, with an overt topical subjectdirectly after the verb, Presentational V1, with an overt non-topical subject, and Null-subject V1.Narrative Inversion is a robust main clause phenomenon, whereas Presentational V1 and Null-subjectV1 are found in subordinate clauses, albeit less frequently than in main clauses. Therestrictions on declarative V1 have remained largely stable throughout the history of Icelandic. Allthree types are continuity/linking orders, hence typical of narrative and other cohesive texts, but veryrare, almost nonexistent, in common discourse types in spoken language. Overall, declarative V1 ismore characteristic of and common in Old Icelandic texts than in Modern Icelandic texts, presumablyas the bulk of the preserved Old Icelandic texts are narrative texts, while such texts are only afraction of accessible Modern Icelandic texts