The Syntax of German

by Hubert Haider

• ISBN13: 9780521865258
• ISBN10: 0521865255
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-02-08
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

What do you know, if you know that a language has 'Object Verb' structure rather than 'Verb Object'? Answering this question and many others, this book provides an essential guide to the syntactic structure of German. It examines the systematic differences between German and English, which follow from this basic difference in sentence structure, and presents the main results of syntactic research on German. Topics covered include the strict word order in VO vs word order variation in OV, verb clustering, clause union effects, obligatory functional subject position, and subject-object asymmetries for extractions. Through this, a cross-model and cross-linguistic comparison evolves, highlighting the immediate implications for non-Germanic OV languages, and creating a detailed and comprehensive description of the syntactic differences that immediately follow from an OV type in contrast with a VO type like English. It will be of interest to all those interested in syntax and Germanic languages.

Author Biography

Hubert Haider is Professor in Linguistics at the University of Salzburg.

Table of Contents

List of tables and figure	p. vii
Foreword	p. viii
Acknowledgements	p. xi
List of abbreviations	p. xiii
A comparative survey: German - V2 and partially OV	p. 1
The V2 property of Germanic languages	p. 1
The linearization of heads and complements: lexically OV and functionally VO	p. 5
German in comparison with other Germanic languages	p. 7
The OV properties of German in contrast to VO properties of English	p. 9
Summary	p. 43
The functional architecture of a German clause: facts and controversies	p. 45
Introduction	p. 45
The position of the clause-final finite verb in German and Dutch: no overt V-to-'I'	p. 54
The position(s) of the subject	p. 68
Expletives for functional spec positions	p. 72
Extraction out of subjects: no subject-object asymmetry	p. 79
Summary	p. 84
Targeting the clause-initial position: German wh-constructions	p. 86
'Wh-movement': movement to the clause-initial spec position	p. 86
Wh-movement-type phenomena in German	p. 94
Partial wh-movement	p. 107
Wh-in-situ in multiple-wh interrogative clauses	p. 111
Is the 'd-linking' effect a discourse-linking effect?	p. 122
A residue of Superiority?	p. 125
Summary	p. 128
Targeting left: clause-internal word order and word order variation	p. 130
Introduction	p. 130
Word order of pronominals	p. 131
Word order variation with non-pronominal arguments: scrambling	p. 141
Scrambling in a grammar-theoretical perspective	p. 154
Outcomes and implications	p. 185
Targeting the right edge: extraposition	p. 188
What is (at) the right edge?	p. 188
What is the structure of the right edge? Problems and puzzles	p. 196
Towards an adequate theoretical modelling of the right edge	p. 203
Appendix: multiple shiftings to the left - Kayne (1994) and its extensions	p. 233
Summary	p. 235
Case: a nominative-accusative language with a four-way case paradigm	p. 237
Introduction: on the morphosyntactics of the German case system	p. 237
Case assignment regularities	p. 247
Case of non-arguments: adverbials and nominal predicates	p. 261
Case in German is not 'positional'	p. 267
Summary	p. 270
Non-finite verbs and their constructions	p. 272
Three types of infinitival construction in German	p. 274
The verbal cluster construction	p. 286
The infinitival clause	p. 292
Comparing and contrasting English with German infinitival constructions	p. 298
The grammar of clausal and clause union infinitival constructions	p. 309
Summary	p. 343
Appendices	p. 344
Bibliography	p. 354
Index	p. 368
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