OV versus VO in Old High German

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Petrova ◽  
Helmut Weiß
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Landing Site ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Functional Projection ◽  
Functional Head ◽  
Word Order Variation ◽  
Order Variation ◽  
The Right

This chapter surveys the word order variation in the right periphery of the clause in OHG. The investigation is based on a corpus including all dependent clauses introduced by the complementizer thaz ‘that’ in the minor OHG documents, a collection of up to forty smaller texts of various genres. The analysis shows that the majority of the data can be explained within a standard OV grammar, assuming additional extraposition of heavy XPs to the right. But apart from these cases, there is evidence supporting the assumption of leftward movement of the verb to an intermediate functional projection vP which is optional with basic OV but obligatory with basic VO. In addition, the chapter presents patterns which evidently involve verb movement to a higher functional head, above vP, and discusses the nature of the landing site of the verb in these cases.

scholarly journals Modeling word order variation in discourse: On the pragmatic properties of VS order in Old High German

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Petrova
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
The Other ◽  
Discourse Structure ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Initial Matrix ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Word Order Variation ◽  
Order Variation ◽  
Initial Placement ◽  
The One

In Old High German, verb-initial matrix declarative clauses display a variety of functions which are broadly related to discourse structure. However, the tho-V2 construction also correlates with the factors triggering verb-initial placement. The paper shows that the preference of the one pattern over the other cannot be explained in terms of a single, straightforward criterion. Rather, several factors influencing the choice process are recognized in the literature. The paper tests the effect of these factors by using methods and tools developed to capture variability in sociolinguistics.

Introduction to Part III

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Fuß
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Word Order Variation ◽  
Order Variation ◽  
Individual Contributions ◽  
Verb Clusters ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

This chapter provides an overview of Part III, which deals with various aspects pertaining to the right sentence periphery in historical stages of German. It outlines a set of issues that figure prominently in relevant current research, including the theoretical analysis of linguistic variation, the impact of information structure on word order (OV versus VO, in particular), and the historical development of verb clusters. In addition, the chapter includes brief summaries of the individual contributions, which focus on word order variation in the lower/right-most part of the middle field (and the post field), and properties of the so-called verbal complex located in the right sentence bracket.

The relative cycle in Hungarian declaratives

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Bacskai-Atkari
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Relative Position ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Word Order Variation ◽  
Order Variation ◽  
Fixed Order ◽  
Embedded Clauses ◽  
Head Positions

This chapter examines word order variation and change in the high CP-domain of Hungarian embedded clauses containing the finite subordinating C head hogy ‘that’. It is argued that the complementizer hogy developed from an operator of the same morphophonological form, meaning ‘how’, and that its grammaticalization path develops in two steps. In addition to the change from an operator, located in a specifier, into a C head (specifier-to-head reanalysis), the fully grammaticalized complementizer hogy also changed its relative position on the CP-periphery, ultimately occupying the higher of two C head positions (upward reanalysis). Other complementizers that could co-occur with hogy in Old Hungarian eventually underwent similar reanalysis processes. Hence the possibility of accommodating two separate C heads in the left periphery was lost and variation in the relative position of complementizers was replaced by a fixed order.

Syntactic complexity, discourse status and animacy as determinants of grammatical variation in Modern English

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELENA SEOANE
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Semantic Role ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Word Order Variation ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Grammatical Variation ◽  
Order Variation ◽  
Corpus Data

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the syntactic, pragmatic and semantic determinants of word-order variation in Modern English, exemplified by the specific case of the use of long passives as order-rearranging devices. Word order in English and in most other SVO languages is affected by a number of factors such as animacy, semantic role, discourse status and syntactic complexity (Sornicola 2006). In this article, which analyses the influence of such factors in the use of long passives, I will try to show that their effects are construction-specific; in particular, that factors which are crucial in determining word order in some constructions – factors such as the animacy of the constituents involved – are entirely overruled by others in the case of Modern English long passives. Corpus data presented here will also serve to address issues pertaining to the nature of the determinants of grammatical variation, such as their independent versus epiphenomenal character, their interactions, and the locus of their effects on word order.

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