Varieties of dependent Verb Second and verbal mood

2020 ◽  
pp. 208-239
Author(s):  
Hans-Martin Gärtner ◽  
Þórhallur Eyþórsson
Keyword(s):  
Verb Second ◽  
Verbal Mood ◽  
Clause Combining

This chapter studies varieties of “dependent V2” with “broad” (bDV2) and “narrow” (nDV2) distribution—that is, “generalized” and “limited embedded V2”— arising within Icelandic. This pattern is taken to correlate with construals of verbal mood as “dominant” in the former case and “non-dominant” in the latter case, where dominance of verbal mood allows the disregarding of the illocutionary impact of V2. It further shows that the variation fits into a model of historical stages with earlier variants “recruiting” verbal mood for clause combining and drift in later stages towards “autonomous” mood, that is, towards a mood system with enhanced semantico-pragmatic transparency.

Postmodifying verb-second clauses in spoken German

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-264
Author(s):  
Regina Weinert
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Language Model ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Discourse Function ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Clause Combining

This usage-based and corpus-based study examines the use of verb-second clauses as restrictive postmodifiers of noun phrases in spoken German (ich kenn leute die haben immer pech ‘I know people they are always unlucky’) in relation to verb-final relative clauses. Previous accounts largely work with de-contextualised and constructed data and stop short of accounting for the discourse function of verb-second postmodifying structures. The ratio of verb-final relative clauses to postmodifying verb-second clauses does not indicate a shift towards main clause syntax. Rather, the verb-second clauses form part of a set of existential or presentational and ascriptive copular constructions which serve to highlight properties of entities and/or introduce discourse topics. Relative clauses can be used for such functions, but this is not as common. The syntactic and semantic features associated with postmodifying verb-second clauses can be seen as a direct result of their discourse function, which only a corpus analysis could reveal. The paper also comments on the wider related aspects of verb position, clause combining and pronoun use in spoken German from the perspective of a usage-based language model.

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.

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.

Clause Structure and Word Order in the History of German

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Right ◽  
Theoretical Analyses

Over roughly the last decade, there has been a notable rise in new research on historical German syntax in a generative perspective. This volume presents a state-of-the-art survey of this thriving new line of research by leading scholars in the field, combining it with new insights into the syntax of historical German. It is the first comprehensive and concise generative historical syntax of German covering numerous central aspects of clause structure and word order, tracing them throughout various historical stages. Each chapter combines a solid empirical basis and valid descriptive generalizations with reference also to the more traditional topological model of the German clause with a detailed discussion of theoretical analyses couched in the generative framework. The volume is divided into three parts according to the main parts of the clause: the left periphery dealing with verbal placement and the filling of the prefield (verb second, verb first, verb third orders) as well as adverbial connectives; the middle field including discussion of pronominal syntax, order of full NPs and the history of negation; and the right periphery with chapters on basic word order (OV/VO), prosodic and information-structural factors, and the verbal complex including the development of periphrastic verb forms and the phenomena of IPP (infinitivus pro participio) and ACI (accusativus cum infinitivo). This book thus provides a convenient overview of current research on the major issues concerning historical German clause structure both for scholars interested in more traditional description and for those interested in formal accounts of diachronic syntax.

Mood

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Portner
Keyword(s):  
Formal Analysis ◽  
Pragmatic Theory ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Pragmatic Function ◽  
Verbal Mood ◽  
The Way

The category of mood is widely used in the description of languages and the formal analysis of their grammatical properties. It typically refers to features of a sentence’s form (or a class of sentences which share such features), either individual morphemes or grammatical patterns, which reflect how the sentence contributes to the modal meaning of a larger phrase or which indicates the type of fundamental pragmatic function it has in conversation. The first subtype, verbal mood, includes the categories of indicative and subjunctive subordinate clauses; the second sentence mood, encompasses declaratives, interrogatives, and imperatives. This work presents the essential background for understanding semantic theories of mood and discusses the most significant theories of both types. It evaluates those theories, compares them, draws connections between seemingly disparate approaches, and with the goal of drawing out their most important insights, it formalizes some of the literature’s most important ideas in new ways. Ultimately, this work shows that there are important connections between verbal mood and sentence mood which point the way towards a more general understanding of how mood works and its relation to other topics in linguistics, and it outlines the type of semantic and pragmatic theory which will make it possible to explain these relations.

scholarly journals Complex complementizers and the structural relation with weak T. New (morpho)syntactic data from a Pomeranian language island in Brazil

2014 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gertjan Postma
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Head Movement ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
Espírito Santo ◽  
Structural Relation ◽  
Espirito Santo ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Proper Analysis

AbstractIn this paper I discuss three properties of Brazilian Pomeranian, a Germanic language spoken in Espirito Santo, Brazil by descendents who emigrated in the 19th century. These three aspects of the verbal system are: 1. The relation between complex complementizers, a two-infinitive system, and split infinitives, previously discussed in van Gelderen (1993, 1998) and Schallert (2012, 2013), 2. Verb Projection Raising (VPR), as discussed by Riemsdijk 2002, Haegeman 2007, Salzmann 2011, and Brandner & Salzmann 2012, and 3. Verb-Second positioning of verbal clusters, previously discussed in Vos (2005). I discuss novel Pomeranian data from the perspective of the literature on these three topics, which have been thus far studied largely separately from one another. An integrated discussion sheds light on the nature and the proper analysis of these three phenomena. I argue that these phenomena are caused by the “weaknesses” of T. The weakness of T can be resolved “downward” by copying features onto T under selection by a higher head (agree), or can be resolved “upward” under head movement of T.

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