Scandinavian pancake sentences as semantic agreement

Abstract

This paper deals with Scandinavian sentences where the predicative adjective apparently disagrees with its subject, such as pannekaker er godt ‘pancakes-pl. is good-neut.sg.’, vodka er sunt ‘vodka-masc. is healthy-neut.sg.’. In this paper, the use of neuter in such sentences is seen as a case of semantic agreement. Thereby, pancake sentences comply with Corbett's (1979) agreement hierarchy. The controllers in pancake sentences are low on the individuation scale. This is the reason why they are neuters. The controllers in pancake sentences are mirror-images of the controllers in more well-known examples of semantic agreement. Not only morphosyntax but also semantics, pragmatics and discourse play a role in agreement.