Cross Germanic variation in the realm of support verbs
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Christer Platzack
Abstract
This paper investigates the cross Germanic variation found in the use of support verbs in connection with VP Topicalization, VP Ellipsis and VP Pronominalization. The differences between Swedish and English are highlighted, but Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and German are also considered. In this analysis, the support verb is a spelled-out little v, and the topicalized, elided and pronominalized parts are √(root)Ps. The variation between English and Swedish is an effect of where the support verb is first merged: English do in little v, Swedish göra in the head of the complement of little v. The other investigated languages have support verbs of the Swedish type, but Danish and Norwegian have developed a support verb of the English type as well.
Abstract
This paper investigates the cross Germanic variation found in the use of support verbs in connection with VP Topicalization, VP Ellipsis and VP Pronominalization. The differences between Swedish and English are highlighted, but Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and German are also considered. In this analysis, the support verb is a spelled-out little v, and the topicalized, elided and pronominalized parts are √(root)Ps. The variation between English and Swedish is an effect of where the support verb is first merged: English do in little v, Swedish göra in the head of the complement of little v. The other investigated languages have support verbs of the Swedish type, but Danish and Norwegian have developed a support verb of the English type as well.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Comparative Germanic Syntax ix
- Modal complement ellipsis 1
- On the adverbial reading of infrequency adjectives and the structure of the DP 35
- Crossing the lake 67
- Preposition-determiner amalgams in German and French at the syntax-morphology interface 99
- Conditional clauses, Main Clause Phenomena and the syntax of polarity emphasis 133
- Cross-Germanic variation in binding Condition B 169
- Development of sentential negation in the history of German 199
- Contact, animacy, and affectedness in Germanic 223
- Syntactic change in progress 249
- Cross Germanic variation in the realm of support verbs 279
- The shift to strict VO in English at the PF-interface 311
- Deriving reconstruction asymmetries in Across The Board by means of asymmetric extraction + ellipsis 353
- A morphologically guided matching approach to German(ic) relative constructions 387
- Index 415
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Comparative Germanic Syntax ix
- Modal complement ellipsis 1
- On the adverbial reading of infrequency adjectives and the structure of the DP 35
- Crossing the lake 67
- Preposition-determiner amalgams in German and French at the syntax-morphology interface 99
- Conditional clauses, Main Clause Phenomena and the syntax of polarity emphasis 133
- Cross-Germanic variation in binding Condition B 169
- Development of sentential negation in the history of German 199
- Contact, animacy, and affectedness in Germanic 223
- Syntactic change in progress 249
- Cross Germanic variation in the realm of support verbs 279
- The shift to strict VO in English at the PF-interface 311
- Deriving reconstruction asymmetries in Across The Board by means of asymmetric extraction + ellipsis 353
- A morphologically guided matching approach to German(ic) relative constructions 387
- Index 415
