Studies on Old High German Syntax: Left sentence periphery, verb placement and verb-second

Diachronica ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-441
Author(s):  
Wayne Harbert
Keyword(s):  
Old High German ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Placement ◽  
German Syntax

Verb-initial declaratives in Old High German and in later German

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Petrova
Keyword(s):  
Main Part ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Diachronic Syntax ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
History Of ◽  
Syntactic Properties

This chapter investigates the syntactic properties and the pragmatic behaviour of verb-initial declarative clauses in the history of German. The focus is on OHG because in this period, verb-initial declaratives represent a frequent, well-known alternative to canonical verb-second main clauses. It is argued that verb-initial declaratives are native in origin, and that they are derivable under a special interpretation of the verb-second rule. The main part of the chapter deals with the pragmatic properties of verb-initial declaratives in OHG, summarizing the various attempts at explaining the distribution of these orders and showing that further research is needed to arrive at a more adequate understanding of their function in the discourse. The chapter closes up with the discussion of the later development of verb-initial declaratives in German, sketching the controversial treatments of this question in the literature on German diachronic syntax.

Object pronoun fronting and the nature of Verb Second in early English

2020 ◽  
pp. 396-425
Author(s):  
Eric Haeberli ◽  
Susan Pintzuk ◽  
Ann Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Placement ◽  
Early English

This chapter examines the nature of the V2 syntax of early English, with an empirical focus on Object Pronoun Fronting. It is claimed that early English, which exhibits both V2 and V3 orders, is similar to a true V2 language like German with respect to XP-fronting: both require one EPP-feature in the CP-domain; and if the presence of an EPP-feature is not motivated by an active interpretive feature, an EPP-feature is inserted and gives rise to Formal Movement (FM). What distinguishes early English from true V2 languages is that in the latter, there cannot be more than one EPP-feature, while in early English, there can be more than one. This difference in the number of EPP-features is related to a difference in verb placement within the CP-domain. Finally, some consequences of this analysis for the diachronic developments in the Middle English period are explored.

Verb-third in Otfrid’s Evangelienbuch

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-98
Author(s):  
Katerina Somers
Keyword(s):  
Old High German ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
The Status ◽  
Finite Verb

Abstract This article investigates the status of so-called verb-final declaratives in Otfrid’s Evangelienbuch, with a focus on whether clauses in which there is no apparent subordinator and the finite verb occurs later than the expected verb-first or verb-second position can be treated as verb-third (V3) clauses, as they are defined for Old High German in works such as Axel (2007) and Tomaselli (1995). Drawing on a set of 746 clauses, I argue that there is no evidence that the finite verbs in these clauses have undergone verb movement, as is claimed in the aforementioned works, nor are the asyndetic verb-late clauses with a verb in surface third position consistent with the patterns identified in the generative literature for the V3 type.

Origins of verb-second in Old High German

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Axel-Tober
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Operator Movement

This chapter investigates the characteristics of the left sentence periphery in Old High German. In the earlier OHG prose texts we still find some archaic characteristics of a non- or pre-verb-second grammar. These include residual and partly productive features of a non-conflated C-domain arguably inherited from Proto-Germanic or even Proto-Indo-European. On the other hand, there is ample evidence that the precursor of the so-called prefield position already existed in OHG and that it was already a target for both operator movement and Stylistic Fronting. All these phenomena shed interesting light on the question of which syntactic steps the language had to take in order consolidate its verb-second grammar.

To hón ich imma insistieat

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Flores ◽  
Esther Rinke ◽  
Claudia Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
German Language ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Syntactic Variation ◽  
General Stability ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Verb Placement ◽  
South Brazil

Abstract This paper investigates syntactic variation in Hunsrückisch German, spoken in a language enclave in South Brazil over eight generations. The aim is to analyse whether this heritage language maintains asymmetric verb placement, i.e. verb-second in main clauses and verb-final in subordinate clauses, a prominent syntactic feature of German varieties. The analysis is based on a sample of 5000 sentences, produced by participants belonging to two generations of Hunsrückisch speakers: 10 older speakers (age: 55–75), and 10 younger adults (age: 25–40). The results show a general stability of asymmetric verb placement in both speaker groups, as has also been observed for other German language islands. This stability is a consequence of the active use of this minority language, not only by the older, but also by the younger generation of speakers, who are dominant in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Variation to verb-second and verb-final order is conditioned by the same factors as in colloquial and dialectal German, and cannot be attributed to cross-linguistic influence from BP.

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