Word Order Variation is Partially Constrained by Syntactic Complexity

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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Pre- and postnominal onymic genitives in (Early) New High German

Journal of Historical Linguistics ◽

10.1075/jhl.19028.ack ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Tanja Ackermann

Keyword(s):

Word Order ◽

Syntactic Complexity ◽

Pragmatic Information ◽

Word Order Variation ◽

Information Status ◽

Determining Factors ◽

Order Variation ◽

Early New High German ◽

The Stability ◽

First Time

Abstract This empirical study focuses on the diachrony of adnominal genitives of proper names in (Early) New High German (17th to 19th centuries), e.g., Carls Haus vs. das Haus Carls ‘Carl’s house’. Starting from the observation that word order variation exists within the whole period investigated, the study identifies determining factors for this variation and weights them in a multifactorial model of word order variation and change, the first time this has been done for German. The focus is on formal factors such as syntactic complexity, a factor that increases in importance over the observed time span. The historical data allow not only the investigation of established formal parameters but also the identification of new factors such as the type of inflectional marker (due to genitive allomorphy in older stages of German). In addition to these formal factors, genitive semantics, pragmatic information status and genre are also taken into account. Explanations for the trend towards the postnominal position of complex adnominal genitives as well as the stability of bare name possessors in the prenominal position are discussed.

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The relative cycle in Hungarian declaratives

10.1093/oso/9780198747307.003.0004 ◽

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.

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OV versus VO in Old High German

10.1093/oso/9780198813545.003.0013 ◽

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.

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