The grammatical basis of Verb Second

2020 ◽  
pp. 177-207
Author(s):  
Horst Lohnstein
Keyword(s):  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Semantic Value ◽  
Semantic Variables ◽  
Structural Configurations ◽  
Verbal Mood

The root and embedded Verb Second constructions in German are investigated and an analysis is proposed which employs properties of the inflectional system to derive finiteness fronting. In particular, the fronting of finiteness through verb movement is traced back to the deictic variables of the inflectional categories tense (time of speech) and verbal mood (situation of speech) in the case of finite clauses. Finiteness fronts in order for these semantic variables to get access to the respective components of the discourse situation. In the case of imperatives—not featuring tense and mood—the agr variable causes verb fronting. Because formal subjects cannot be licensed in imperatives, the agr variable for [person: 2, number: a plural] does not get a semantic value. Fronting of the verb allows binding the discourse component addressee to this variable. Being bound to discourse components, the respective propositional objects are anchored on the discourse table. Embedded Verb Second constructions are derived by the same principles and their interaction with the specific properties of the higher-ordered structural configurations.

Verb Second in Medieval Romance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Wolfe
Keyword(s):  
Old French ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Medieval Romance ◽  
Second Languages ◽  
Clausal Structure ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Null Argument

This book provides the first book-length study of the controversial subject of Verb Second and related properties in a range of Medieval Romance languages. Both qualitative and quantitative data are examined and analysed from Old French, Occitan, Sicilian, Venetian, Spanish, and Sardinian to assess whether the languages were indeed Verb Second languages. The book argues that unlike most modern Romance varieties, V-to-C movement is a point of continuity across all the medieval varieties, but that there are rich patterns of synchronic and diachronic variation in the medieval period which have not been noted before. These include differences in the syntax–pragmatics mapping, the locus of verb movement, the behaviour of clitic pronouns, the syntax of subject positions, matrix/embedded asymmetries, and the null argument properties of the languages in question. The book outlines a detailed formal cartographic analysis both of both the synchronic patterns attested and of the diachronic evolution of Romance clausal structure.

scholarly journals On the Acquisition of Word Order in WH-Questions in theTromsø Dialect

Nordlyd ◽  
10.7557/12.48 ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marit Richardsen Westergaard
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Syntactic Form ◽  
Wh Questions

This article reports on a study of three children acquiring a dialect of Norwegian which allows two different word orders in certain types of WH-questions, verb second (V2) and and verb third (V3). The latter is only allowed after monosyllabic WH-words, while the former, which is the result of verb movement, is the word order found in all other main clauses in the language. It is shown that both V2 and V3 are acquired extremely early by the children in the study (before the age of two), and that subtle distinctions between the two orders with respect to information structure are attested from the beginning. However, it is argued that V3 word order, which should be ìsimplerî than the V2 structure as it does not involve verb movement, is nevertheless acquired slightly later in its full syntactic form. This is taken as an indication that the V3 structure is syntactically more complex, and possibly also more marked.

Verb-movement

2019 ◽  
pp. 342-418
Author(s):  
Ian Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Event Semantics ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
History Of

The chapter begins with a very brief excursus into Davidsonian event semantics, explaining the basic motivation for positing event variables, as well as ‘separation’ of θ‎-roles from predicates. It then develops the TP-Denotation Hypothesis, i.e. the idea that events are denoted through the Tense feature. This naturally leads to a tripartite typology of Tense vs No-Tense languages, and Weak-Tense vs Strong-Tense languages. Strong-Tense (Romance), Weak-Tense (mainly English), and No-Tense (Chinese) languages are illustrated. The chapter then turns to other examples of cross-linguistic variation in verb-movement: V-initial languages and Germanic verb-second, where a novel labelling-based proposal for certain core properties is developed. The proposals regarding the changes affecting the ‘inversion’ system through the history of English made by Biberauer & Roberts are then summarized. The chapter concludes with a parameter hierarchy for Tense.

The scope of embedded Verb Second in modern Yiddish

2020 ◽  
pp. 665-681
Author(s):  
Molly Diesing ◽  
Beatrice Santorini
Keyword(s):  
Native Speaker ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Embedded Clauses ◽  
Finite Verb

Embedded Verb Second (V2) clauses have been analysed as embedded main clauses or in terms of selection. This chapter presents data from both corpora and native speaker judgements showing that Verb Second order in embedded clauses in Yiddish goes well beyond what can be explained by either of the above approaches, with V2 possible and attested in interrogatives as well as declaratives. Adjunction of adverbials to V2 clauses is possible as well, yielding orders with the finite verb in third position (V3). But V3 resulting from lack of verb movement, as is seen in Mainland Scandinavian and (optionally) in Icelandic, is not found.

A different perspective on embedded Verb Second

2020 ◽  
pp. 297-322
Author(s):  
Rebecca Woods
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Illocutionary Force ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Embedded Clause ◽  
Matrix Verb

This chapter compares embedded verb movement phenomena in English with embedded Verb Second clauses in German and Swedish. Close examination of the syntactic—but more particularly the semantic and pragmatic—properties of these phenomena reveals striking similarities, and the claim is made that these phenomena exhibit independent illocutionary force in the sense that the perspective holder for the embedded proposition or question is disambiguated—a departure from the claim that embedded verb movement structures are asserted (cf. Julien 2015 and Chapter 11 of this volume). It is proposed, following recent innovations in speech act syntax (Wiltschko and Heim 2016; Woods 2016) that these structures are dependent, as the ‘embedded’ clause contains less structure than full a root clause, yet is still structurally larger than a typical embedded clause. However, they are not selected and are instead in an apposition relation with a (usually covert) nominal complement to the matrix verb.

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.

Variable V2 in Norwegian heritage language

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marit Westergaard ◽  
Terje Lohndal ◽  
Björn Lundquist
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
The Other ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence

Abstract This paper discusses possible attrition of verb second (V2) word order in Norwegian heritage language by investigating a corpus of spontaneous speech produced by 50 2nd–4th generation heritage speakers in North America. The study confirms previous findings that V2 word order is generally stable in heritage situations, but nevertheless finds approximately 10% V2 violations. The cases of non-V2 word order are argued to be due to lack of activation of the heritage language grammar, making it vulnerable to crosslinguistic influence from the speakers’ dominant language. This crosslinguistic influence does not simply replace V2 by non-V2, but is argued to operate more indirectly, affecting (a) the distribution of contexts for V2 word order, and (b) introducing two new distinctions into the heritage language, one (indirectly) based on a similar distinction in the dominant language (a difference between adverbs and negation with respect to verb movement), the other based on frequency of initial elements triggering V2 in non-subject-initial declaratives. Together, these findings also indicate that crosslinguistic influence affects different contexts of V2 differently, providing support for analyses that treat V2 word order as the result of many smaller rules.

scholarly journals INTERACTIONS BETWEEN VERB MOVEMENT AND AGREEMENT IN KARITIANA (TUPI STOCK)

2003 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciana R. Storto
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Transitive Verb ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Constituent Order ◽  
Embedded Clauses ◽  
Agreement Morphology

Este artigo tem como objetivo mostrar que o Karitiana, uma língua da família Arikém, tronco Tupi, falada em Rondônia, Brasil, é uma língua V-2, que apresenta movimento obrigatório do verbo para a posição de complementizador (C) nas sentenças matrizes. O verbo transitivo, invariavelmente, ocorre em primeira ou segunda posição em relação a seus argumentos nas sentenças principais, quando aparece, obrigatoriamente, marcado por tempo e concordância. Já nas sentenças subordinadas, o verbo aparece nú na última posição. Apresentamos evidências de movimento verbal ao discutirmos a ordem dos constituintes, a posição dos núcleos funcionais nas sentenças, e as possibilidades de adjunção adverbial na língua. Abstract This paper aims to show that Karitiana, a language of the Arikém family, Tupi stock, spoken in Rondônia, Brazil, is a verb-second language, which presents obligatory movement of the verb to complementizer position (C) in root clauses. The transitive verb, invariably, occurs in first or second position with respect to its arguments in matrix clauses, when it is marked by tense and agreement morphology. In embedded clauses, the verb is bare and occurs in final position. We present evidence of verb movement through a discussion of constituent order, the position of functional heads in the sentence, and adverb adjunction possibilities.

scholarly journals Verb-second and the verb-stranding verb phrase ellipsis debate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Walker Manetta
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Head Movement ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Standard Account ◽  
Verb Phrase Ellipsis ◽  
Verb Phrase ◽  
Argument Ellipsis

Verb-stranding verb phrase ellipsis (VPE), when a verb is stranded outside of the VP-sized ellipsis site in which it originated, has been identified in a number of languages (Irish, McCloskey 1991; Hebrew, Doron 1991, Goldberg 2005; Greek, Merchant 2018; Uzbek, Gribanova 2019, i.a.), and has been invoked productively in analyses investigating the position to which verbs move and the timing of verb movement in the grammar. Recently, Landau (2018, 2019, to appear) proposes a phase-based negative licensing condition on head-stranding ellipsis that precludes verb-stranding VPE altogether. He claims that apparent verb-stranding VPE must be reanalyzed either as Argument Ellipsis (Oku 1998; Kim 1999; Takahashi 2008), or a clause-sized ellipsis that strands main verbs (Gribanova 2017). This article approaches this debate through an analysis of head movement and head-stranding ellipsis in the Indic verb-second (V2) language Kashmiri, arguing that Landau’s phase-based approach encounters empirical challenges in accounting for variation in the presentation of ellipsis in V2 languages and requires an unconventional approach to V2, at odds with recent accounts of Kashmiri V2 (Bhatt 1999; Munshi and Bhatt 2009; Manetta 2011) and mainstream views of V2 generally (e.g. Holmberg 1986; Travis 1991; Vikner 1995; Zwart 1997). While the present article argues in favor of the standard account of ellipsis (Merchant 2001, 2008), we affirm the important contribution of Landau’s work in identifying challenges facing any account of head-stranding ellipsis licensing. At issue is the larger question of whether and how verb-stranding ellipses can be used to better understand head movement.

Expanding the typology of Verb Second VPE

2020 ◽  
pp. 723-744
Author(s):  
Emily Manetta
Keyword(s):  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Verb Phrase Ellipsis ◽  
Verb Phrase ◽  
The Right

Mysteriously, Verb Second (V2) languages are known to exhibit auxiliary-stranding verb phrase ellipsis (VPE) but to lack verb-stranding VPE, even though the inflected verb must leave the VP (Mikkelsen 2006; LaCara 2014). Sailor (2018) claims that VPE bleeds V2; the feature that drives ellipsis (on T) is introduced derivationally prior to the feature driving V2 (on C). Only languages with verb movement triggered by T, as in Hebrew (Goldberg 2005), exhibit V-stranding VPE. This chapter offers evidence that Sailor’s approach is on the right track; the Indic language Kashmiri is a V2 language in which auxiliary-stranding and V-stranding VPE co-occur, because T is independently a trigger for V movement (Munshi and Bhatt 2009). The findings support a particular approach to the timing and interaction of the major operations in the grammar and suggest that any approach to V2 must account for the variation in the presentation of VPE in V2 languages.

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