Verb-second as a reconstruction phenomenon : evidence from grammar and processing / Constantin Freitag.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Freitag, Constantin, author.

Series:

Studia grammatica ; 86.

Studia grammatica, 0081-6469 ; 86

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grammar, Comparative and general--Verb.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Verb phrase.

German language--Verb.

German language.

German language--Verb phrase.

Physical Description:

xvii, 300 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, [2021]

Summary:

This investigation of V2-movement addresses the question which role the lexical content of the moved element plays during sentence processing. It draws on original theoretical arguments, empirical data and results from psycholinguistic experiments. The main finding is that the lexical content of the V2-verb is interpreted only at the end of the clause, i.e. at the base position of the finite verb.

Contents:

Part I The grammatical perspective on V2-movement

2 The Syntax of V2 p. 7

2.1 Observations: The facts about V2 p. 7

2.1.1 The core cases: V2, V1 and V-final p. 7

2.1.2 The prefield: What precedes the finite verb? p. 10

2.1.3 Restrictions on V2-movement p. 10

2.1.4 Restrictions on prefield elements p. 23

2.2 Exceptions: Non-V2 structures p. 42

2.2.1 V-initial clauses p. 42

2.2.2 V-final main clauses p. 43

2.2.3 V>2 structures p. 44

2.2.4 Summary of the non-V2 patterns p. 48

2.3 Explanations: A brief history of syntactic accounts p. 48

2.3.1 Insertion into the middle field p. 49

2.3.2 V-to-C movement (plus phrasal movement) p. 50

2.3.3 (A)symmetric V2: V-to-I movement in subject-initial clauses p. 52

2.3.4 Two types of V2-movement: Force and Fin p. 56

2.3.5 Remnant movement p. 57

2.3.6 Semantico-pragmatic accounts of V2 p. 62

2.3.7 Summary of the explanatory accounts p. 63

3 The V2-Reconstruction Hypothesis p. 65

3.1 Defining the V2-Reconstruction Hypothesis p. 65

3.1.2 Understanding movement, reconstruction, and pied-piping p. 66

3.2 The C-position: Challenging a lexical contribution at the surface position p. 71

3.2.1 Particle verbs: V-to-C as movement of phonological words p. 71

3.2.2 Semantically empty host I: Periphrastic tun p. 74

3.2.3 Semantically empty host II: Verb doubling p. 80

3.2.4 Semantically empty host III: Frisian wer-Insertion p. 85

3.2.5 Complementizer Agreement: Inflection on non-verbal C-elements p. 86

3.2.6 Summary: Only agreement features in C p. 91

3.3 The base position: Arguments for the necessity of reconstruction p. 92

3.3.1 Association with focus p. 92

3.3.2 Verbal negative polarity items: Only licensed in the base position p. 95

3.3.3 Sentential negation: C-commanding the verbal base-position p. 101

3.3.4 Summary: Lexical interpretation only in the base position p. 107

3.4 Experiment 1: The lexical meaning of periphrastic tun (acceptability judgments) p. 108

Part II The role of V2-movement in sentence processing

4 Basics of sentence processing p. 121

4.1 Sentence processing: Apparatus and procedures p. 121

4.1.1 Levels of representation p. 121

4.1.2 Some thoughts about the architecture of the processor p. 123

4.1.3 The role of grammar in a processing model p. 126

4.1.4 On-line processing and incrementality p. 127

4.2 Incrementality in parsing p. 131

4.2.1 Anticipation: Parsing heuristics p. 132

4.2.2 Delay: Filler-gap dependencies p. 133

4.2.3 Consequences of incremental structure building: Constituency vs. c-command p. 135

4.2.4 Incrementality and interpretation p. 137

4.3 Configurationality of V2: The discrepancy between finite verb and lexical head p. 141

4.3.1 Auxiliary verbs p. 142

4.3.2 Modal verbs p. 143

4.3.3 Clustering verbs: Selecting non-finite complements p. 144

4.3.4 Particle verbs p. 145

4.3.5 Summary: A uniform parsing mechanism for V2-clauses p. 147

5 Processing of German clauses p. 150

5.1 Scrambling p. 150

5.1.1 Unambiguous case marking p. 151

5.1.2 Ambiguous case marking p. 153

5.2 XP-fronting p. 154

5.2.1 Unambiguous case marking p. 155

5.2.2 Ambiguous case marking p. 156

5.3 The processing influence of the verb p. 157

5.3.1 Thematic processing p. 157

5.3.2 Attachment ambiguities p. 162

5.3.3 Scope computing p. 165

5.3.4 Processing of the verb: Anticipation and integration p. 167

6 Experimental investigations of the V2-Reconstruction Hypothesis p. 172

6.1 Experiment 2: Reconstruction of the verbal NPI brauchen (self-paced reading) p. 172

6.2 Experiment 3: Follow-up study on the NPI brauchen (self-paced reading) p. 190

6.3 Experiment 4: Reconstruction of infinitive-embedding verbs (self-paced reading) p. 202

6.4 Experiment 5: Verb reconstruction and word order preferences (self-paced reading) p. 209

6.5 Summary of the experimental investigations p. 235

7 Peculiarities of processing V2-clauses p. 237

7.1 Properties of V2-processing p. 237

7.1.1 The special status of subject-initial V2-clauses p. 238

7.1.2 Aspects of (immediate) interpretation p. 240

7.1.3 Structural build-up and verb reconstruction: Cascades vs. insertion p. 243

7.2 Consequences and diagnostics for V2-parsing p. 246

7.2.1 Temporary constituency: Right Node Raising with the exclusion of C p. 246

7.2.2 The preverbal area: Licensing direction and core interpretation domain p. 262

7.2.3 The postverbal area: Extraposition and its restrictions p. 265

7.2.4 Speculations about crosslinguistic generalizations p. 271

8 Grand summary and conclusion p. 275.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

3110724936

9783110724936

OCLC:

1237632020