The conclusion presents a recap of the findings in terms of the OLG theory and new data from Faroese, Icelandic and other languages. Several suggestions are made as to how the OLG framework could be tested against new data, especially regarding pertinent questions raised by the analyses of quirky case phenomena. First, dative–accusative case frames beyond Faroese are discussed: pain-related verbs in Baltic languages occur in both dative–nominative and dative–accusative patterns, for which Seržant (2013) explicitly draws parallels with Icelandic and Faroese. Likewise, the loss of oblique subjects over time is discussed in Indo-Aryan languages: Deo and Sharma (2006) and Kiparsky (2017) identify the important factors in changes in these case systems. The trajectory seems to be similar to that of Old Norse moving via Icelandic- and Faroese-type to modern Norwegian-type systems with respect to the oblique subjects. A possessive construction in Uralic languages is also discussed, in which the oblique possessor occurs with a nominative or accusative possessum. Finally, some proposals are made for future research based on the framework itself, with reference to information structure, stochastic and other variants of Optimality Theory, locality constraints, and other topics.

This chapter focuses on an illustrative phenomenon that has presented challenges for previous theories: non-nominative subjects. A summary of preceding literature is given, highlighting the relevant subjecthood properties of the Icelandic preverbal datives, as well as the subject-licensing syntactic positions in that language. A contrast is then drawn with similar dative arguments in German, concluding that the German obliques do not behave as subjects with respect to control properties, and do not occupy Spec,TP like the Icelandic datives. Before investigating the subjecthood of the Faroese datives, a detailed overview of what is currently known of Faroese clause structure is presented to establish the evidence for argument-licensing positions in the language. The standard subjecthood tests are applied to the Faroese dative-experiencer predicates, which demonstrate that the Faroese datives behave very similarly to those in Icelandic with respect to subjecthood properties. Given that the dative arguments in such sentences appear to be true subjects, and therefore the subject licensing position of Spec,TP seems to be the same in both Faroese and Icelandic, the differences in object case and number agreement with a plural object remain to be explained. This is explored in Chapters 3–7.