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Article published In:
Linguistics in the Netherlands 2016
Edited by Jenny Audring and Sander Lestrade
[Linguistics in the Netherlands 33] 2016
► pp. 54–69

Deriving verb-cluster variation in Dutch and German

| Utrecht University

The difference in West-Germanic V(erb)-clusters, right-branching (Dutch) and left-branching (German), follows from a difference in the acquisition of V-second. The decisive factor is a rightward selection of the <+Aux> verbs in Dutch main clauses. That decisive factor had already been acquired before any V-cluster appeared in the child’s speech. Longitudinal Dutch child data show that modals and aspectuals develop a rightward selection that carries over into the V-cluster. The German child data do not show such a development. Automatic phrasal formation by the acquisition procedure allows a V-cluster without assuming V-to-V-movement from an underlying structure. The general perspective is that (i) the acquisition procedure is a discovery procedure, and that (ii) typological effects are the outcome of early local string-determined licensing/selection.

Keywords: West-Germanic V-clusters, harmonic order, V-second acquisition, non-movement analysis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The acquisition perspective. Two types of selection
    • 2.1The acquisition path for the root clause in Dutch and German
    • 2.2Directionality of selection: A Dutch-German input difference
    • 2.3Subordinate clauses and V-clusters
  • 3.Triple V-clusters
  • 4.The categorial status of the past participle
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 21 December 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.33.05kam
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