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Christine Meklenborg Nilsen

Professor and Head of Department

Email c.m.nilsen@ilos.uio.no

Phone +47 22 85 73 38

Mobile phone +47 90 72 02 00 +47-90720200

Room NT 926

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Visiting address Niels Treschows hus 9th floor Niels Henrik Abels vei 36

Postal address ILOS P.O.Box 1003 Blindern 0315 Oslo Norway

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As a theoretical linguist specializing in the cartographic approach, my focus lies on word order, particularly in Old French. My particular research interest concerns the Verb-Second structure, which is found in Old French and the Modern Germanic languages (excluding Modern English). Notably, I led the research project Traces of History (2013–2017), exploring why Germanic languages retained V2 while Romance languages abandoned this word order.

A rewarding aspect of my work involves contrasting Old French with other languages, shedding light on structures like topicalization and the intriguing resumptive structure, which seemingly violate the V2 constraint.

My doctoral research focused on interrogative structures in the history of French, and my postdoctoral work investigated changes in object clitic clusters in French. Recent projects include the study of topicalization in Old French and Norwegian, as well as an extensive exploration of the resumptive structure in the history of Swedish.

I am currently Head of Department at ILOS, a position that leaves me with limited time for active research and teaching.

For a detailed overview, please refer to my full CV (June 2021).

Tags: French, French language, Old French, Linguistics, Language history, Diachronic linguistics, Word order, Clitics, Verb placement, Verb Second, Syntax, Generative linguistics, Linguistic cartography, Contrastive linguistis, Topicalisation

Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2025). Tracing the origins of resumption in Swedish. In Harchaoui, Sarah & Modicom, Pierre-Yves (Ed.), Verb-third phenomena in Germanic verb-second languages. Language Science Press. p. 171–217. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.17077192. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This paper examines the changes in the resumption system that take place in Swedish from the 13th to the 18th centuries. The basis of the analysis is a data set of 6,052 clauses drawn from different kinds of texts. The analysis shows that while då was the dominating resumptive in the earliest texts, så takes over as the generalized resumptive in the 16th century. The paper argues that då resumption undergoes semantic restriction while så resumption shows an instance of semantic expansion. This is a reflection of a deeper underlying process, where the antecedent gets fully integrated into the V2 clause.
Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg & Lohndal, Terje (2023). Adverbial Resumption and Scope: A Case Study of Norwegian. In Karen, De Clercq; Haegeman, Liliane; Lohndal, Terje & Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (Ed.), Adverbial Resumption in Verb Second Languages. Oxford University Press. ISSN 9780197651155. p. 221–241. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Haegeman and Greco (2018, this volume) show that there are interpretational effects associated with Verb Second (V2) vs. non-V2 structures, viz. V3 structures. Among others, they illustrate that word order has a scopal effect. Compare (1a) and (1b) from West Flemish (Haegeman and Greco 2018: 21, this volume).
Haegeman, Liliane; Clercq, Karen de; Lohndal, Terje & Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2023). Adverbial Resumption in V2 Languages: The Background. In Karen, De Clercq; Haegeman, Liliane; Lohndal, Terje & Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (Ed.), Adverbial Resumption in Verb Second Languages. Oxford University Press. ISSN 9780197651155. p. 7–42. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
The goal of this chapter is to lay out the background assumptions that will underlie the discussions in the present volume, setting ‘adverbial resumption’, the core issue addressed in this volume, against the general background of the Verb Second (V2) pattern. Readers familiar with the literature on V2, on left dislocation structures in V2 and on resumptive patterns, will not find much new by way of empirical discoveries in this chapter and could skip it. However, the chapter provides a novel synthesis of the available literature. Section 2 provides a wider background for the volume, focusing on cases where the finite verb seemingly appears in a third position. In section 3, we provide an inventory of a set of empirical issues that arise in relation to adverbial V3 resumption. Many of these will be discussed in more detail in the individual contributions to the volume, which is to say that the goal of this section is to introduce properties that may be relevant in later discussions.
Kemenade, Ans van & Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2021). Issues in the Left Periphery of Old English and Old French. Topic types and the V2 constraint. In Wolfe, Sam & Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (Ed.), Continuity and Variation in Germanic and Romance. Oxford University Press. ISSN 9780198841166. p. 248–274. Full text in Research Archive
Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg; Helland, Hans Petter & Lohndal, Terje (2021). Topics in French and Norwegian. In Wolfe, Sam & Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (Ed.), Continuity and Variation in Germanic and Romance. Oxford University Press. ISSN 9780198841166. p. 223–247. doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198841166.003.0009. Full text in Research Archive
Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2021). Merged and Moved. Topics in Old and Middle French. Journal of Historical Syntax. 5(16-25), p. 1–49. doi: 10.18148/hs/2021.v5i16-25.72. Full text in Research Archive
Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2021). Extraction Strategies in Norwegian. In Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg; Lohndal, Terje & Østby, Kathrine Asla (Ed.), Syntax, semantics and acquisition: In honor of Hans Petter Helland. Universitetet i Oslo. ISSN 9788291398129. doi: 10.5617/osla.8921. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
In this paper I will show that it is possible to extract elements from an embedded root clause in a V2 language, provided that the deleted copy is spelled out in a high position. However, if the embedded clause does not have V0-to-C0 movement, no deleted copy can be spelled out. This difference falls out naturally from the assumption that embedded root clauses must be thematically complete and that in the case of movement chains, the foot of the chain cannot be spelled out. This paper is a detailed study of extraction strategies in Norwegian, based on a corpus of 1329 informants. Its novelty lies in combining the study of extraction strategies with the presence of resumptive elements in the embedded clause.
Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2020). Adverbial resumptive particles and Verb Second. In Woods, Rebecca & Wolfe, Sam (Ed.), Rethinking Verb Second. Oxford University Press. ISSN 9780198844303. doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198844303.001.0001. Full text in Research Archive
Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2020). Resumptive structures in a Gallo-Romance perspective. In Wolfe, Sam & Maiden, Martin (Ed.), Variation and Change in Gallo-romance Grammar. Oxford University Press. ISSN 9780198840176. p. 41–70. Full text in Research Archive
Helland, Hans Petter; Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg & Lohndal, Terje (2020). La topicalisation en français et en norvégien. Scolia. ISSN 1253-9708. 34, p. 51–69. doi: 10.4000/scolia.1176. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
In this paper, structural and syntactic properties of left dislocation as topics in French and Norwegian are examined in a systematic manner. We establish a standard division of Hanging Topics and Left Dislocated Topics and argue for the distinction in both languages. There are however fundamental structural differences between French and Norwegian related fundamentally to the V2 feature of Norwegian as a Germanic language. This means that we find language-specific characteristics. We propose a movement approach for Norwegian, whereas French has both base generated Hanging Topics and Left Dislocations. In this manner we can explain typical differences between the two languages and refine insights that have been established in the linguistic literature for French.
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2019). A micro-perspective on Verb-second in Romance and Germanic. Linguistic Variation. ISSN 2211-6834. 19(1), p. 1–15. doi: 10.1075/lv.00010.mek. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
The Verb-second (V2) phenomenon is one of the central issues of modern linguistic theory. This volume examines V2 from a micro-perspective, comparing various languages and periods. At the heart of the work presented here lies the clear assumption that Verb-second is by no means a unitary phenomenon, but rather a heterogenous and rich system that affects languages in various ways.
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg & Walkden, George (2017). Diagnosing embedded V2 in Old English and Old French. In Mathieu, Eric & Robert, Truswell (Ed.), Micro-change and Macro-change in Diachronic Syntax. Oxford University Press. ISSN 9780198747840. p. 168–181. doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198747840.003.0011. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2015). La disparition de l'infinitif antéposé. In Badiou-Monferran, Claire & Verjans, Thomas (Ed.), Disparitions. Contributions à l'étude du changement linguistique.. Honoré Champion. ISSN 9782745329288. p. 303–320. Full text in Research Archive
Bech, Kristin & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2014). Preverbal word order in Old English and Old French. In Bech, Kristin & Eide, Kristine Gunn (Ed.), Information Structure and Syntactic Change in Germanic and Romance Languages. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISSN 9789027255969. p. 233–269. doi: 10.1075/la.213.09bec. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg & Bech, Kristin (2014). Postverbal subjects in Old English and Old French. Oslo Studies in Language (OSLa). 6(1), p. 201–228. doi: 10.5617/osla.725. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Both Old English and Old French are commonly described as V2 languages. We investigate the position of the postverbal subject based on a corpus of medieval texts with respect to syntax and information structure. Our main findings are that information structure plays a more important role in Old English than in Old French.
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2014). Le complémenteur 'que' et la périphérie gauche : analyse diachronique. Syntaxe & Sémantique. ISSN 1623-6742. 15, p. 47–80. doi: 10.3917/ss.015.0047. Full text in Research Archive
Helland, Hans Petter & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2014). Affaire(s) de grammaire. In Helland, Hans Petter & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (Ed.), Affaire(s) de grammaire. Mélanges offerts à Marianne Hobæk Haff à l'occasion de ses soixante-cinq ans. Novus Forlag. ISSN 9788270997534. p. i–iii. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2014). "En espérant qu'elle vienne" - l'emploi modal après espérer. In Helland, Hans Petter & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (Ed.), Affaire(s) de grammaire. Mélanges offerts à Marianne Hobæk Haff à l'occasion de ses soixante-cinq ans. Novus Forlag. ISSN 9788270997534. p. 107–131. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2013). Topics and the Left Periphery. A comparison of Old French and Modern Germanic. In Lohndal, Terje (Eds.), In search of universal grammar : from Old Norse to Zoque. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISSN 9789027255853. p. 131–172. doi: 10.1075/la.202.10sal. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg & Helland, Hans Petter (2013). Why challenging clitics? Some introductory remarks. In Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg & Helland, Hans Petter (Ed.), Challenging Clitics. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISSN 9789027255891. p. 1–26. doi: 10.1075/la.206.01sal. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2013). Reflexive verbs and the restructuring of clitic clusters. In Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg & Helland, Hans Petter (Ed.), Challenging Clitics. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISSN 9789027255891. p. 283–310. doi: 10.1075/la.206.12sal. Full text in Research Archive

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Karen, De Clercq; Haegeman, Liliane; Lohndal, Terje & Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2023). Adverbial Resumption in Verb Second Languages. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780197651155. 383 p. Full text in Research Archive
Wolfe, Sam & Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2021). Continuity and Variation in Germanic and Romance. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198841166. 624 p. Full text in Research Archive
Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg; Lohndal, Terje & Østby, Kathrine Asla (2021). Syntax, semantics and acquisition: In honor of Hans Petter Helland. Universitetet i Oslo. ISBN 9788291398129. 237 p. Full text in Research Archive
Helland, Hans Petter & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2014). Affaire(s) de grammaire. Mélanges offerts à Marianne Hobæk Haff à l'occasion de ses soixante-cinq ans. Novus Forlag. ISBN 9788270997534. 271 p. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg & Helland, Hans Petter (2013). Challenging Clitics. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 9789027255891. 315 p. Full text in Research Archive

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Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2025). Is Old French actually a Scandinavian language? Verb-second, resumption, movement, and the left periphery. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Old French and Modern Scandinavian have a resumptive structure that is strikingly similar: (1) XP-adv + SÅ/SI + V-fin + S Is this resemblance is superficial or does it reflect deeper structural similarities? I will present the evolution of the resumptives \textsc{så} and \textsc{da} in the history of Scandinavian and compare it to Old French data. The comparison between the language stages will permit us to identify micro-parameters that within the resumptive structure both with regards the form and function of the resumptive, the derivation of the structure and limitations to its antecedent.
Catasso, Nicholas & Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2025). A comparative look at adverbial resumption in the diachrony of Scandinavian and German. doi: https:/digs26.ling-phil.ox.ac.uk/home. Full text in Research Archive
Bech, Kristin & Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2025). Bayeux-teppet er mye mer enn 93 peniser. Full text in Research Archive
Spalek, Alexandra Anna & Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2024). Ja, vi må tenke nytt om språkfagene. Full text in Research Archive
Cruschina, Silvio; Fábregas, Antonio & Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2022). Introduction. Isogloss. Open Journal of Romance Linguistics. 8(3), p. 1–6. doi: 10.5565/REV/ISOGLOSS.255. Full text in Research Archive
Wolfe, Sam & Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2021). Germanic and Romance: Data, method, and theory. In Wolfe, Sam & Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (Ed.), Continuity and Variation in Germanic and Romance. Oxford University Press. ISSN 9780198841166. p. 1–12. Full text in Research Archive
Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2020). Topik-markøren si – en sammenligning mellom gammelfransk og gammeloksitansk. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2019). Resumption in Gallo-Romance. Full text in Research Archive
Haanæs, Øystein Rygg & Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2019). Derfor bruker vi nordmen "så" så ofte. [Internet]. forskning.no. Full text in Research Archive
Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2019). Egentlig så er det ikke så dumt. Språknytt. ISSN 0333-3825. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2019). Resumption in V2 languages. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2019). Different shades of si. Information structure, V-to-C movement and the loss of V2. Full text in Research Archive
Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2019). V2 and resumption - a cross-linguistic perspective. Full text in Research Archive
Nilsen, Christine Meklenborg (2019). Merged and Moved - topics in Old French. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg & Kemenade, Ans van (2019). The information-structural status of topic constructions i Old English and Old French. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). Semantically bleached or semantically salient? The story of two homonymous particles in Old French. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). Nå så snakker vi om så. En studie av endringer i bruken av den resumptive konstruksjonen i dansk, svensk og norsk. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). Hva så? Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). Kåseri, Språkteigen. [Radio]. NRK P2. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). Ord, ord, ord. Full text in Research Archive
Therese, Kongsrud Helle & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). Sytermer fra fransk (serie som sendes høsten 2018). [Radio]. Språkteigen, NRK P2. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). Navn i og rundt Eidsvoll. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). Naturnavn, gårdsnavn og slektsnavn i Eidsvoll. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). Den urgamle jula. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). En beretning om vann. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg & Kemenade, Ans van (2018). Critical remarks on the Force-Fin V2 model. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). Michael Zimmermann: Expletive and Referential Subject Pronouns in Medieval French. Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur. ISSN 0044-2747. 128(2-3), p. 324–328. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). Det lille filleordet så. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). Topicalisation patterns in Old French. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). Helge Nordahl 12. januar 1927 – 31. mars 2018. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). Minnetale over professor Helge Nordahl. Årbok / Det norske videnskaps-akademi. ISSN 0332-6209. p. 112–117. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg & Haff, Marianne Hobæk (2018). Helge Nordahl (nekrolog). Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2017). Navn i Eidsvoll. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2017). At the corner of syntax and semantics. Resumptive structures in Old French and Old Swedish. Full text in Research Archive
Toril, Haugen & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2017). Det lille ordet «så» har stor betydning. [Journal]. Apollon. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2017). The resumptive cycle. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2017). From tha to så – the resumptive structure in Old Swedish. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2017). Anekdoter om fransk språk. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2017). I norsk så bruker vi så. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2017). Hvorfor studere fremmedspråk? Full text in Research Archive
Myhre, Torunn & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2017). Det lille ordet så. [Radio]. NRK P2 Språkteigen. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2017). Microvariation in Germanic. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2016). The syntax of resumptives. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2016). The emergence of linguistic patterns. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2016). Nå så har vi det bra - om resumpsjon i V2-språk før og nå. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2016). Nu så börjar det lossna! Full text in Research Archive
Bech, Kristin & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2016). To foredrag om året 1066 og dets sammenheng med engelsk og fransk språkhistorie. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2016). Resumption in Romance and Germanic. Full text in Research Archive
Bech, Kristin & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2016). 1066 - et skjebneår for engelsk og fransk språk. Full text in Research Archive
Erdal, Elise Sundfør & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2016). Cirkumfleksens skjebne. [Radio]. P2, Kulturhuset. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2015). Jeg skjønner ikke en dritt. Eidsvoll Ullensaker Blad. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg & Fernández-Rubiera, Francisco José (2015). V2 and enclisis: a diachronic and synchronic phase-approach. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2015). When Verb Second seems to be Verb Third. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg & Fernández-Rubiera, Francisco José (2015). Clitic placement and V2 – two sides of the same coin. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2015). Licensing pro in Old French. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg & Fernández-Rubiera, Francisco José (2015). V2 and enclisis: a uniform analysis for Germanic and (some) Romance varieties. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2015). Resumption and V2. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2015). Stedsnavn i Eidsvoll. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2015). Traces of History. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2015). Traces of History. Full text in Research Archive
Wilberg, Gunn & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2014). Jubler for millioner til egen forskning. [Journal]. Eidsvoll Ullensaker Blad. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2014). Typisk norsk. Eidsvoll Ullensaker Blad. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2014). Vidvnderlige versaler. Aftenposten Viten. ISSN 2464-3033. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2014). De frankiske statene - Tyskland og Frankrikes felles fortid. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2013). Definitivt innafor. Eidsvoll Ullensaker Blad. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2013). DELALINVALATINA à la langue française. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2013). Gammelfransk vs. norsk. Om venstreperiferi og topics. Full text in Research Archive
Bech, Kristin & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2013). Språka for 1000 år sidan: Fransk og engelsk svært ulike. [Journal]. Apollon. Full text in Research Archive
Bech, Kristin & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2013). 1066 - et skjebneår for engelsk og fransk språk. Full text in Research Archive
Bech, Kristin & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2013). Superficial typology: the so-called verb-second constraint in Old English and Old French. Full text in Research Archive
Bech, Kristin & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2013). 1066 - et skjebneår for engelsk og fransk språk. Full text in Research Archive
Bech, Kristin & Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2013). Superficial typology: The so-called 'verb-second constraint' in Old English and Old French. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg & Walkden, George (2013). Diagnosing embedded V2 in Old French and Old English. Full text in Research Archive
Salvesen, Christine Meklenborg (2018). Grunnleggende fransk grammatikk. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive

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Published Sep. 23, 2010 12:00 PM - Last modified Mar. 31, 2025 9:51 AM

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