scholarly journals Verb-second word order after German weil ‘because’: Psycholinguistic theory from corpus-linguistic data

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Linguistic Data ◽  
Corpus Linguistic

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.

Word-order change in progress: the case of Slovene and Serbo-Croat and its relevance for Germanic

1987 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Related Language ◽  
Slavonic Language ◽  
History Of ◽  
Order Change ◽  
The One ◽  
Word Order Change ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
Fresh Insight

It will be suggested in this article that Slovene, a South Slavonic language, is on the way to acquiring verb-second (V2) word order. In providing evidence in support of this view I shall compare Slovene, on the one hand, with the closely related language Serbo-Croat and, on the other hand, with relevant details from the history of the Germanic languages. The point of comparing it with Serbo-Croat is to discover the respects in which the word order of these two languages has diverged. Taken together with what is known about the word order of Common Slavonic, the facts emerging from this comparison allow us to identify one major respect in which Slovene has changed and two respects in which it is still changing. At the same time, they reveal a major respect in which Serbo-Croat word order is also changing. The point of comparing Slovene with the Germanic languages is twofold. First, since all the present-day Germanic languages either have or have had V2 word order (Haiman, 1974), it is possible that their history can help us to understand the changes currently taking place in Slovene and to predict how Slovene might change in the future. Secondly, where details of the history of the Germanic languages are poorly understood, the possibility exists of gaining fresh insight into them in the light of the changes that have taken place more recently, or indeed are still taking place, in Slovene. In this connection we shall assess the plausibility of two theories concerning the adoption of V2 word order by the Germanic languages, those of Vennemann (1975) and Wackernagel (1892).

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.

The persistence of verb second in negative utterances in Breton

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly J. Kennard
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Input Pattern ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Input Use ◽  
Medium Education ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Complex Verbs ◽  
Language Transmission

This article examines word order in negative clauses in Breton across two generations separated by a gap in language transmission. It might be expected that the V2 constraint in Breton matrix clauses would be subject to change in light of immense influence from French and this transmission gap. An examination of original fieldwork data indicates that there is little change between the older (65+) and younger (children/adults aged 20–30) speakers, but that there is variation among younger speakers currently in Breton-medium education. All speakers use the expected V2 in utterances with a pronominal subject. With lexical subjects, it seems that the key factor is the amount of Breton input children receive. Children in bilingual schooling with no additional Breton input use exclusively SVO order, whereas children in immersion schooling or with further Breton input pattern with older speakers and young adults using V2 with complex verbs, and both SVO and V2 with simple verbs. The implications of this for the continued maintenance of the V2 constraint in Breton are discussed, and the overriding factor is argued to be the continuation of Breton input as children grow older.

scholarly journals Verb Second and the Left Edge Filling Trigger

2020 ◽  
pp. 455-481
Author(s):  
Mélanie Jouitteau
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Linguistic Typology ◽  
Left Edge ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Extended Projection ◽  
Active Rule

This chapter is an inquiry into the subcomponent of the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) that is relevant for second position phenomena: the Left Edge Filling Trigger (LEFT). LEFT basically amounts to a classical morphological obligatory exponence effect, except that it is instantiated at the sentence level. It cross-linguistically operates in a post-syntactic realizational morphological module. It is shown that LEFT is an active rule of Universal Grammar, providing empirical arguments from Breton, a Celtic VSO language showing an extra conspicuous V2 requirement. A radical reanalysis of language word order typology is proposed. Classic V2 languages are conspicuously V2. SVO is a subtype. So-called V1 languages are either predicate-fronting languages (Tense second), or inconspicuously V2. A cross-linguistic typology of LEFT effects is presented, with great attention paid to inconspicuous satisfiers, among them null expletives, for which evidence is presented. The chapter argues accordingly for a drastic extension of the typology of expletives.

scholarly journals Constructing an XML database of linguistics data

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J H Kroeze ◽  
T JD Bothma ◽  
M C Matthee
Keyword(s):  
Programming Language ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Visual Basic ◽  
Free Text ◽  
Xml Database ◽  
Linguistic Data

A language-oriented, multi-dimensional database of the linguistic characteristics of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament can enable researchers to do ad hoc queries. XML is a suitable technology to transform free text into a database. A clause’s word order can be kept intact while other features such as syntactic and semantic functions can be marked as elements or attributes. The elements or attributes from the XML “database” can be accessed and proces sed by a 4th generation programming language, such as Visual Basic. XML is explored as an option to build an exploitable database of linguistic data by representing inherently multi-dimensional data, including syntactic and semantic analyses of free text.

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