Quantifier Float and Floating allir/báðir

A quantifier like allir "all" or báðir "both" normally hugs the noun it counts: allir strákarnir "all the boys." But Icelandic lets the quantifier detach from its noun and drift to a lower position in the clause, leaving the noun behind — strákarnir komu allir "the boys all came," with allir stranded after the verb. This is quantifier float (or quantifier stranding). It is not a quirk of style: the floated quantifier still agrees with the noun it belongs to, and where it lands tells you where the subject sat at an earlier point in the derivation. That makes quantifier float a precision instrument — the same kind of evidence used to argue for the two subject positions behind the transitive expletive construction. This page covers the floating positions, the agreement that ties the quantifier to its associate, and the famous dative diagnostic that lets a floated quantifier reveal the case of a silent subject. (For the quantifier paradigms themselves, see determiners/quantifiers-all.)

The basic phenomenon: the quantifier leaves the noun behind

Start with the adjacent baseline. allir can sit right beside its noun, forming one phrase: allir strákarnir "all the boys." In that configuration the quantifier and noun travel together as a unit.

Now float it. Leave the noun in subject position and let the quantifier slide down behind the finite verb. The meaning is unchanged — it is still all the boys — but the quantifier is now physically separated from the noun it counts.

English does exactly this with all and both ("the boys all came," "they have all read it"), so the construction itself transfers. What does not transfer is the agreement — and that is where Icelandic gets interesting.

Agreement: the floated quantifier still matches its associate

Here is the property that makes Icelandic quantifier float a tool rather than a curiosity. However far the quantifier floats, it keeps agreeing with its associate — the noun it belongs to — in gender, number, and case. allir is not frozen; it inflects to match. With a masculine plural subject it is allir; with a feminine plural, allar; with a neuter plural (or a mixed-gender group), öll. The floated quantifier is, in effect, carrying a copy of its noun's features down the clause.

báðir "both" floats the same way and shows the same three-way gender contrast: báðir (masc.), báðar (fem.), bæði (neut./mixed). The default for a mixed-sex group is the neuter, which is why Við vorum *bæði þreytt "we were both tired" uses *bæði (and the neuter predicate þreytt) when "we" includes both sexes.

The case dimension: the quantifier floats in the subject's case

Because agreement includes case, a floated subject-quantifier appears in the nominative (the subject's case), and a floated quantifier associated with a quirky-case subject appears in that case. This is what makes float a diagnostic: the quantifier wears the case of the position its associate occupies, so it reports that case back to you even when the noun itself is elsewhere or silent.

That second example is the heart of the matter: leiðast is a dative-subject verb, the subject þeim is dative, and the floated quantifier comes out dative öllum to match. The quantifier is reading the subject's case off its position — and that is precisely the property that lets it expose a subject you cannot otherwise see.

The dative-PRO diagnostic: seeing a silent subject's case

Now the showcase, and the reason quantifier float earns a place in syntax curricula. In a control construction (see complex/control-pro), the embedded clause has a silent subject, the controlled PRO. You cannot see PRO directly — it is unpronounced. But you can float a quantifier off it, and the quantifier, being pronounced, shows up in PRO's case. If the embedded verb is a dative-subject verb, the silent PRO is dative, and a quantifier floated off it surfaces as the dative öllum — visible proof that the invisible subject is dative.

Stare at ...að leiðast ekki *öllum.... There is no pronounced embedded subject; *leiðast demands a dative subject; and the floated quantifier comes out dative öllum. The only way the quantifier could be dative is if the silent subject it floated from is dative — so the quantifier has made the case of an unpronounceable element visible. This is one of the cleanest empirical arguments in syntax that PRO is real, that it bears case, and that the case is the one the embedded verb assigns. The quantifier is a window onto an invisible noun.

Float as a probe for subject position

Pull the threads together. A floated quantifier (a) agrees with a specific associate, so you know which noun it belongs to, and (b) lands in a structural position, so you know where that noun's case/features are active. That combination turns float into a probe: the position of the floated quantifier marks a spot the subject occupied or passed through. This is the same kind of reasoning that the transitive expletive construction relies on — using the distribution of an element to argue for an otherwise-invisible structural position. A subject can be quantified high (adjacent: allir strákarnir komu) or have its quantifier stranded low (strákarnir komu allir), and the two positions correspond to the two places a subject can be associated with — high and low — exactly the two-position picture behind the TEC and object shift. Quantifiers are not static labels on nouns; they are mobile markers that trace where a subject has been.

Common Mistakes

A floated quantifier is not frozen — it inflects to its associate. Feminine allar, neuter/mixed öll, masculine allir.

Mixed-gender groups default to the neuter (öll, bæði). Use the masculine only for an all-male associate.

The floated quantifier agrees in case too. With a quirky-case subject, the quantifier wears that quirky case — dative öllum, not nominative allir.

A floated quantifier is locked to one associate by agreement; it cannot reach across to quantify a different, mismatched noun.

Key Takeaways

• Quantifier float: a quantifier (allir, báðir, hvor) can detach from its noun and land lower in the clause — after the finite verb (strákarnir komu allir) or in the mid-field after an auxiliary (þeir hafa *allir lesið bókina*).
• The floated quantifier agrees with its associate in gender, number, and case: allir/allar/öll, báðir/báðar/bæði. Mixed-gender groups take the neuter (öll, bæði), with neuter predicates (Við vorum bæði þreytt).
• Because agreement includes case, the quantifier wears the subject's case — nominative with an ordinary subject, but the quirky case with a quirky subject: Þeim leiddist *öllum* (dative, matching dative þeim).
• The dative-PRO diagnostic: float a quantifier off a silent PRO in a control clause and it surfaces in PRO's case, making an invisible subject's case visible — ...að leiðast ekki *öllum* exposes a dative PRO. Clean evidence that PRO is real and case-marked (see complex/control-pro).
• Float is therefore a probe for subject position: a floated quantifier marks where its associate was, the same reasoning behind the two-position analyses of the transitive expletive construction and object shift.
• English floats all/both too, so the construction transfers — but English shows no agreement and no case on the floated quantifier, so the agreement (gender, neuter-for-mixed, quirky case) is the part to learn.