Abstract
The Nordic languages differ with respect to word order in infinitives under causative lade ‘let’ (and cognates), in cases where the agent of the embedded verb is unspecified (see e.g. Taraldsen 1984, Platzack 1986a, Thráinsson 2007:454 and Wood 2011). In Icelandic and Standard Swedish, an object DP must follow the embedded verb, while in Danish it must precede the verb; cf. (1) and (2). Faroese and Norwegian allow both orders (see Thráinsson et al. 2004:313 n. and Faarlund et al. 1997:1009). According to Hulthén (1944:127), VO is the normal order in Bokmål, and Faarlund et al. (1997:1009) states that the OV-order is used in literary style.
If we assume that examples like (1a) involve raising to an object position, a pronominal object should undergo object shift in Danish (see Holmberg 1986:222 ff.). In Danish, weak pronouns obligatorily occur in a position before a sentence adverb, in the absence of an auxiliary (see Bentzen 2014 for data and discussion of object shift).
The Danish part of the ScanDiaSyn survey included sentences to investigate the placement of DP objects in lade-causatives and weak pronouns embedded under lade and høre ‘hear’. The results from the Nordic Syntax Database (Lindstad et al 2009) and the Nordic Dialect Corpus (Johannessen et al. 2009) are presented below.