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Chapter 5. Optional V2 in modern Afrikaans

Probing a Germanic peculiarity
  • Theresa Biberauer
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Word Order Change in Acquisition and Language Contact
This chapter is in the book Word Order Change in Acquisition and Language Contact

Abstract

This chapter investigates an embedded V2 option that features prominently in modern spoken Afrikaans, while being either completely barred or heavily restricted in other V2 languages: embedded wh-V2. This option, which is available in all wh-complements, freely alternates with its prescriptively correct V-final counterpart, and does not, as in colloquial varieties of English, bear the illocutionary force of a “true question”. To capture these peculiar distributional and interpretive facts, I propose a novel link to a further distinctive property of modern Afrikaans: its negative concord requirement. Appealing to the plausible origins of the obligatory clause-final nie-concord element as a discourse tag-element that would initially have been adjoined to CP, I argue that its prescriptively imposed obligatory integration into the clausal spine produced a new CP-peripheral projection, Pol(arity)P(hrase). Acquirers’ predilection to generalize the structures in their grammars led to PolP’s generalization to all clause-types, making modern-day Afrikaans clauses consistently “bigger” than those of its (West) Germanic counterparts. If McCloskey (2006) is correct in assuming that selected/complement Cs bar raised verbs – the so-called Kayne-Rizzi-Roberts effect – the presence of this extra, “insulating” layer will account for the consistent possibility of V2-creating V-to-C movement in all Afrikaans clausal complements, and not just those that permit this option in Germanic languages more generally.

Abstract

This chapter investigates an embedded V2 option that features prominently in modern spoken Afrikaans, while being either completely barred or heavily restricted in other V2 languages: embedded wh-V2. This option, which is available in all wh-complements, freely alternates with its prescriptively correct V-final counterpart, and does not, as in colloquial varieties of English, bear the illocutionary force of a “true question”. To capture these peculiar distributional and interpretive facts, I propose a novel link to a further distinctive property of modern Afrikaans: its negative concord requirement. Appealing to the plausible origins of the obligatory clause-final nie-concord element as a discourse tag-element that would initially have been adjoined to CP, I argue that its prescriptively imposed obligatory integration into the clausal spine produced a new CP-peripheral projection, Pol(arity)P(hrase). Acquirers’ predilection to generalize the structures in their grammars led to PolP’s generalization to all clause-types, making modern-day Afrikaans clauses consistently “bigger” than those of its (West) Germanic counterparts. If McCloskey (2006) is correct in assuming that selected/complement Cs bar raised verbs – the so-called Kayne-Rizzi-Roberts effect – the presence of this extra, “insulating” layer will account for the consistent possibility of V2-creating V-to-C movement in all Afrikaans clausal complements, and not just those that permit this option in Germanic languages more generally.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Grammar change and information structure
  6. Chapter 2. From OV to VO in English 9
  7. Chapter 3. Word order and verb movement in Norwegian wh-questions 35
  8. Chapter 4. Conditional inversion and types of parametric change 57
  9. Chapter 5. Optional V2 in modern Afrikaans 79
  10. Part II. The first position in a Verb-Second language
  11. Chapter 6. The information status of late subjects in passive main clauses in Old English 103
  12. Chapter 7. Position-related subject properties change in English 127
  13. Chapter 8. Split coordination in Early English 155
  14. Part III. Verb-Second effects
  15. Chapter 9. Beowulf and Old English metre 187
  16. Chapter 10. The rise and fall of the passive auxiliary weorðan in the history of English 213
  17. Chapter 11. What comes second 241
  18. Part IV. Particles in diachrony
  19. Chapter 12. Verb particle combinations and word order change in Dutch-lexifier creole languages 265
  20. Chapter 13. Parts and particles 291
  21. Chapter 14. Exploring the role of information structure in the word order variation of Old English verb-particle combinations 311
  22. Part V. Contrasting V2 and Non-V2 information structure
  23. Chapter 15. The EFL teacher's nightmare 337
  24. Chapter 16. Common framework, local context, local anchors 353
  25. Index 371
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.243.05bib

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Grammar change and information structure
  6. Chapter 2. From OV to VO in English 9
  7. Chapter 3. Word order and verb movement in Norwegian wh-questions 35
  8. Chapter 4. Conditional inversion and types of parametric change 57
  9. Chapter 5. Optional V2 in modern Afrikaans 79
  10. Part II. The first position in a Verb-Second language
  11. Chapter 6. The information status of late subjects in passive main clauses in Old English 103
  12. Chapter 7. Position-related subject properties change in English 127
  13. Chapter 8. Split coordination in Early English 155
  14. Part III. Verb-Second effects
  15. Chapter 9. Beowulf and Old English metre 187
  16. Chapter 10. The rise and fall of the passive auxiliary weorðan in the history of English 213
  17. Chapter 11. What comes second 241
  18. Part IV. Particles in diachrony
  19. Chapter 12. Verb particle combinations and word order change in Dutch-lexifier creole languages 265
  20. Chapter 13. Parts and particles 291
  21. Chapter 14. Exploring the role of information structure in the word order variation of Old English verb-particle combinations 311
  22. Part V. Contrasting V2 and Non-V2 information structure
  23. Chapter 15. The EFL teacher's nightmare 337
  24. Chapter 16. Common framework, local context, local anchors 353
  25. Index 371
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