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    Sten VIKNER
    Denmark

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Generative Models of Syntactic Variation:
The Germanic languages and the SOV/SVO difference

Sten Vikner
International Summer School: Models of Language Variation and Change
August 7-21, 2009, University of Marburg


Abstract:
 This course will discuss syntactic variation across the Germanic languages, with a particular focus on the SOV/SVO-difference. Empirically, it is not so difficult to show that e.g. English and the Scandinavian languages are SVO (... because I know him) and that e.g. Dutch, Frisian and German are SOV (... weil ich ihn kenne), although it is rather less straightforward to determine whether Yiddish is SOV or SVO. I shall argue for the former, i.e. SOV.

Theoretically, the issue is more complex. There are a number of different explanations available at the moment, ranging from a directionality difference (with different base orders) to the universal base hypothesis with massive remnant movement ("roll up"), with some other options in-between. We shall review a number of these, couched in different generative frameworks.

We will also discuss various kinds of verb movement, including
· verb second (the placement of a finite verb in the second position of a main clause, irrespective of what the first constituent is, found in all Germanic languages except English), and
· V-to-I movement (the placement of a finite verb in the position immediately after the subject in both main and embedded clauses).

I will argue that V-to-I movement as found in Icelandic, in older stages of English, Danish and Swedish, and in French only has a counterpart in one Germanic SOV-language, namely Yiddish.

Finally, the last session or two will probably centre on the differences and similarities between object shift (as found in Scandinavian, i.e. SVO) and scrambling (as found in continental West Germanic, i.e. SOV). Both of these two place e.g. an object left of a sentential adverb, but the conditions on object shift are much stricter than the ones on scrambling.



Eight hand-outs:
 (The beginning or end of hand-outs will not necessarily coincide with the beginning or end of particular sessions)
1. Introduction to Germanic Clause Structure
2. SOV/SVO and Verb Particles
3. SOV/SVO and Predicative Adjective Agreement
4. Two-verb Sequences and Germanic SOV-languages
5. SOV/SVO and Immobile Complex Verbs
6. Accounting for Germanic Clause Structure - an OT Approach
7. Object Shift and Scrambling - an introduction
8. Scandinavian Object Shift, Remnant VP-Topicalisation, and Optimality Theory


There is no required reading for this course, except for the hand-outs which will be distributed in class. Nevertheless, below you will find links to pdf-versions of three background papers and of four overview papers (from The Blackwell Companion to Syntax).

Three background papers:
Diesing, Molly (1997): "Yiddish VP order and the typology of object movement in Germanic"
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 15.2: 369-427.
Grimshaw, Jane (1997): "Projection, Heads and Optimality"
Linguistic Inquiry 28.2: 373–422.
Vikner, Sten (1997): "Vo-to-Io Movement and Inflection for Person in All Tenses"
Liliane Haegeman (ed.), The New Comparative Syntax, pp. 189–213, London: Longman.

Four overview papers:
(from Henk van Riemsdijk & Martin Everaert (2005)(eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Blackwell, Oxford)
Chapter 43: Mittelfeld Phenomena (Scrambling in Germanic), by Hubert Haider
Chapter 46: Object Shift, by Sten Vikner
Chapter 75: Verb Clusters, Verb Raising, and Restructuring, by Susi Wurmbrand
Chapter 76: Verb Particle Constructions, by Martin Haiden

Six maps:

The Continental West Germanic languages and dialects
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Continental_West_Germanic_languages.png
as used on
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_Germany#Linguistic_maps


The Germanic languages

http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/34/2034-004-9211C072.gif
as used on
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/640154/2096/Distribution-of-the-Germanic-languages-in-Europe


The languages of Europe

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh275/pizzler/Languages_of_Europe.png
as used on
http://www.twine.com/item/11rpq4tlc-9q/languages-of-europe


The distribution of Afrikaans in South Africa

http://www.cyberserv.co.za/users/~jako/lang/languagemaps/afrikaans.jpg
as used on
http://www.cyberserv.co.za/users/~jako/lang/languagemaps/index.htm


The distribution of Yiddish in Central and Eastern Europe

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Yidish-dialects-ru.png
as used on
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%88


The language families of the world

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f7/Human_Language_Families_Map.PNG
as used on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_Map.PNG

    This document is
http://www.hum.au.dk/engelsk/engsv/papers/marburg/
 
First posted: August 2009   ·   Last modified:  August 6, 2009
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