Extraposition in English and Swedish 239
(10) Att få uppleva kärleken är enda orsaken till att jag ibland ser fram mot att bli
vuxen. (AP1)
‘To be allowed to experience love is ...’
(cf. *Det är enda orsaken till att jag ibland ser fram mot att bli vuxen är att få
uppleva kärleken)
To be able to experience love is the only reason why I occasionally look forward
to being grown-up. (AP1T)
(cf. *It is the only reason why I occasionally look forward to being grown-up
to be able to experience love.)
I then compared to what extent the remaining clausal subjects had been extra-
posed, using the search words it in English and det ‘it’ in Swedish. Instances where
det and it were used in other constructions, such as impersonal constructions,
clefts or existential clauses were removed from the samples. I also removed a num-
ber of instances (28 and 14 clauses in the English and Swedish samples, respec-
tively) where the that-clauses were subjects of passive verbs representing mental
or verbal processes, as in (11), as these correspond to objects in active clauses.
(11) Så var det 1634 under drottning Kristinas förmyndarregering, då det bestäm-
des, att titeln skulle ges till den som rådde över hovstaten. (GAPG1T)
‘...when it was decided that the title should be given to ...’
(cf. De bestämde att titeln skulle ges till ...)
That was the situation during the Regency of Queen Kristina, when it was
decided that this title should be conferred upon the person who was in charge
of the Royal Court. (GAPG1T)
(cf. They decided that this title should be conferred upon...).
Many of these correspond to clause complexes where the matrix predicate con-
tains an active verb with the generic pronoun man ‘one’ as its subject in Swedish,
as in (12).
(12) Erskine’s solutions are often a symbolic gesture, but even if it must be said that
he often devotes to form money that is more usually devoted to material, the
result is often a saving of resources. (EGE1)
Men även om man kan påstå att Erskine använder pengar som vanligen läggs
ut på material till att åstadkomma form, blir resultatet ändå ofta resursbespa-
rande. (EGE1T)
‘But even if one can say that ...’
These correspondences are similar to extrapositions in their interpersonal and
textual functions: they assign modal responsibility for the attitudinal meaning to
a subject which has no clear personal reference, thereby making it sound objective,