Factors favoring Aux-V order in 15th century German subordinate clauses

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Published: Oct 24, 2018
Keywords:
syntax, German, word order

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Christopher D. Sapp

Abstract

This is a study of the relative order of finite and non-finite verbs in Early New High German subordinate clauses. I argue that Early New High German was underlyingly SOV and V-Aux and that the Aux-V order involves adjunction to the right. I test several hypotheses about the causes of the Aux-V order on a corpus of four 15th-century texts. The effect of some phonological factors is not verified by this study. However, I do find a number of factors that favor Aux-V: separable prefixes, clause type, syntagm type, clusters of three verbs, argument postposition, focus, and coordination. I conclude that the Aux_v order is used to highlight marked information structure.

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Issue
Vol. 5 No. 2 (2005): Syntax and Beyond
Section
Articles

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