The left periphery as interface – On verb second and finiteness interaction

Verb Second ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 207-250
Keyword(s):  
Left Periphery ◽  
Verb Second

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.

Relaxed Verb Second in Classical Portuguese

2020 ◽  
pp. 368-395
Author(s):  
Charlotte Galves
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Tycho Brahe ◽  
Contrast Feature

Based on the quantitative and qualitative study of 11 syntactically parsed texts (485,767 words) from the Tycho Brahe Parsed Corpus of Historical Portuguese, this chapter argues that Classical Portuguese, i.e. the language instantiated in texts written in Portugal by authors born in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is a V2 language of the kind that Wolfe calls ‘relaxed V2 languages’. These are languages in which V1 and V3 sentences coexist with V2 patterns. To account for the sentential patterns observed and their interpretation, a new cartographic analysis of the left periphery is proposed. The existence of sentences in which quantified objects precede fronted subjects suggests that there are two distinct positions in the CP layer to which preverbal phrases can move. The higher one is the familiar Focus category. It is argued that the lower one is neuter with respect to the topic/focus dichotomy and merely encodes a contrast feature. Other constituents can be adjoined at the higher portion of the left periphery where they are interpreted as topics or frames. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the importance of textually diversified corpora as the basis of historical syntactic studies.

The distribution of quantifiers in Old and Modern Italian

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacopo Garzonio ◽  
Cecilia Poletto
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Past Participle ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
The Past ◽  
Verb Forms

This chapter considers the distribution of VO and OV orders in Old Italian when the object is represented by a quantified constituent. The investigation takes into consideration cases of VO/OV variation with complex analytic verb forms where V is the past participle and O contains a universal or a negative quantifier. It is shown that while OV with non-quantified DPs and complex QPs is optional, universal bare quantifiers always precede the past participle. It is proposed that bare quantifiers undergo obligatory movement to a dedicated position, which is a function of their internal structure. Moreover, it is argued that the modern stage of the language has preserved the movement of the quantifier, but this is not always visible because of a change in the movement properties of the verb: in generalized verb-second Old Italian the past participle remains trapped inside the vP left-periphery while it raises higher in Modern Italian.

Rethinking Medieval Romance Verb Second

2020 ◽  
pp. 348-367
Author(s):  
Sam Wolfe
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Old French ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Medieval Romance ◽  
Corpus Data

This chapter offers a reappraisal of the place of Medieval Romance languages within the V2 typology based on novel corpus data. A review of the available primary and secondary evidence provides compelling evidence that the Medieval Romance languages considered (French, Occitan, Sicilian, Venetian, and Spanish) were V2 languages, with V-to-C movement and XP-merger in the left periphery. The second half of the chapter focuses in detail on Old Sicilian and Old French, arguing that although both show certain commonalities, the height of the V2 bottleneck is distinct with thirteenth-century French showing a stricter V2 syntax than Old Sicilian. This is linked to the former’s status as a high V2 language with a locus for V2 on Force, as opposed to Fin where the constraint is operative in Sicilian.

scholarly journals Diagnosing embedded V2 in Old English and Old French

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Meklenborg Salvesen ◽  
George Walkden
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Old French ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Matrix Verb ◽  
Finite Verb

Old English (OE) and Old French (OF) both display verb-second (V2) word order in main declarative clauses. Different models may account for V2: (a) the finite verb must move to a head in the CP field; (b) it must remain in the IP field; or (c) it moves to the left periphery only when the preceding XP is not a subject. While the IP-model should allow free embedded V2, the two others would either exclude completely or strongly limit the possibilty of having embedded V2. We select embedded that-clauses and analyse the word order with respect to the matrix verb: embedded V2 is possible in both OE and OF, although the availability of this structure is restricted. OE has very few occurrences of embedded V2, whereas OF seems to permit this construction more freely. We link this difference to the site of first Merge of complementizers in the two languages.

An Information Structure scenario for V2 loss in Medieval French

Diachronica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Larrivée
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Gradual Loss ◽  
Order Change ◽  
Informational Cues ◽  
Word Order Change ◽  
Informational Value

Abstract This paper discusses word order change in Medieval French. Verb-second (V2) configurations are generally understood as having an initial XP and the verb in the left periphery. How has this configuration been lost in French? Under an Information Structure scenario, the XP is in initial position because of its characterized (discourse-old) informational value, which motivates the left-peripheral position of the verb. The decline of the characterized informational value of the XP thus accounts for the gradual loss of V2. The informational behaviour of XPs was examined in unambiguous V2 configurations with an overt post-verbal subject in Medieval French. This detailed quantitative study of a calibrated corpus shows that XPs with a characterized informational value were predominant with productive V2 configurations, that they gradually declined as productive V2 was lost, and that they increasingly failed to attract the verb to the left periphery. These observations can be accounted for if V2 in Medieval French was driven by informational values and if it disappeared along with the informational cues provided by the XPs.

scholarly journals A Case of V2 in Chinese

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei-Tien Dylan Tsai
Keyword(s):  
Left Periphery ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Substantial Evidence ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Null Operator ◽  
Bare Nominals ◽  
Feature Checking

Abstract As far as the left periphery is concerned, there is a conspiracy between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics to ensure the success of sentence formation. We would like to put forth the claim that peripheral features play an important role in this endeavor, which can be checked by either Merge or Move according to the parameter-settings of individual languages. Along this line, topic prominence can be regarded as the result of peripheral feature checking, and the null topic hypothesis à la Huang (1984) is reinvented as a null operator merger to fulfill interface economy in the left periphery. In this regard, Chinese provides substantial evidence from obligatory topicalization in outer affectives, evaluatives, and refutory wh-constructions, which applies only when the licensing from a D(efiniteness)-operator is blocked. The idea also extends naturally to the issues concerning pro-drop and bare nominals in general. In this light, we may well compare Chinese obligatory topicalization to those residual cases of verb-second (V2) in English, all being manifestation of the strong uniformity.

Multiple Feature Inheritance and the phase structure of the left periphery

2020 ◽  
pp. 150-176
Author(s):  
Phil Branigan
Keyword(s):  
Phase Structure ◽  
Head Position ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Phase Theory ◽  
New Model ◽  
Island Effect ◽  
Multiple Feature ◽  
Feature Inheritance ◽  
Germanic Languages

Left-peripheral cartographic structures pose a challenge to phase theory models incorporating Feature Inheritance. This chapter effects a reconciliation of the different approaches that is based on the idea that Feature Inheritance can apply multiple times from the same phase head. A new model of Germanic Verb Second word order results, in which the displaced verb always occupies a phase head position, but the position itself may vary in different syntactic contexts. The model derives the strong Verb Second island effect in Germanic languages from phase theoretic principles. It is thereby shown that phase theory complements, rather than conflicts with, cartographic theory.

How to define relaxed V2 languages and how to distinguish them from non-V2 languages: A reply to Brandtler (2014)

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Cognola
Keyword(s):  
Left Periphery ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Linear Restriction ◽  
Abstract Rule ◽  
Finite Verb

This paper provides evidence for the idea that relaxed verb-second (V2) languages exist and exhibt specific properties which distinguish them from both strict V2 and non-V2 languages. The identification of the relaxed subtype of V2 languages implies that V2 should not be understood as a linear restriction, but as an abstract rule involving the movement of the finite verb to a head of the left periphery in all main clauses.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document