Lars-Olof Delsing

I defended my thesis on Scaninavian noun phrases in 1993. and I have in several ways made research on Scandinavian noun phrases since, notably their hisory (not least the form of adjectives, the case system, possession, colecctive genitival -s etc.) and their dialectal variation (use of articles, incorporated adjectives, possessive constructions etc.). 

Aditionally I have studied Swedish and General Scandinavian language history outside the noun phrase (esepecially exclamatives, OV-word order, preposition stranding, Stylistic fronting, and that-clauses).

Some recent studies concerns the dialect of Västerbotten, especially its verbal system (which is strikingly similar to English in several ways) and its use of the (original) subject case form in object position: Ge han åt jag (give he to I).

Together with prof. Cecilia Falk (Stockholm) I was sorking on a comprehensive handbook on syntax history. Our understaning of syntax in the history of Swedish has deepened considerably during the last four decades. After my late colleagues death, we have founded an editorial board for the edition of the large (but unfinished) manuscript. The bord contains researchers from Lund, Gotheburg, Stockholm and Uppsala.  

In connection with the work on Swedish syntax history I have conducted several investigations on specific issues, such as the use of weak and strong forms of adjectives, possessive dative, the loss of case, exclamatives, adjectival comaprison, and the grammaticalisation of the adjectives mycken and liten into pronominal quantifiers.  In connection to the latter study I have also come to study the polarity like functions of the weak forms of mycket ant lite in Modern Swedish. 

Togheter with David Petersson I have recently studied the difference between att- and det-clauses in Older Swedish. The research tradition considers them stylistic variants, but we can show that they partly have different functions.