I investigate deviations from the OV order in the OHG texts Isidor and Tatian. Abstracting away from cases of verb-second, post-verbal constituents tend to be heavy or focused. OHG thus has a head-final VP with extraposition of NPs and PPs. Likewise, verbal complexes with the order finite before non-finite are derived by Verb (Projection) Raising. Ancient Indo-European languages are also underlyingly OV with evidence for extraposition. This suggests that OHG inherited the head-final VP, extraposition and even V(P)R from Proto-Indo-European. Because extraposition and V(P)R are at the periphery of grammar, the resulting surface orders have not resulted in parametric change to the VP from Proto-Indo-European to present-day German.
2009Verb clusters in colloquial German. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 121. 175–228.
Baldi, Philip & Pierluigi Cuzzolin
2009Syntactic change in the history of Latin: Do new perspectives lead to new results? In Philip Baldi & Pierluigi Cuzzolin (eds.), New perspectives on historical Latin syntax, 865–894. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Bauer, Brigitte L.M
2009Word order. In Philip Baldi & Pierluigi Cuzzolin (eds.), New perspectives on historical Latin syntax, 241–316. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Behaghel, Otto
1932Deutsche Syntax: Eine geschichtliche Darstellung. Heidelberg: Winter.
Behaghel, Otto
1929Zur Stellung des Verbs im Germanischen und Indogermanischen. Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der indo-germanischen Sprachen 561. 276–281.
Biberauer, Theresa, Anders Holmberg & Ian Roberts
2014A syntactic universal and its consequences. Linguistic Inquiry 451. 169–225.
Bierwisch, Manfred
1963Grammatik des deutschen Verbs (Studia grammatica 2). Berlin: Akademie.
Bubenik, Vit
1991Nominal and pronominal objects in Sanskrit and Prakrit. In Hans Henrich Hock (ed.), Studies in Sanskrit syntax, 19–30. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Cervin, Richard
1990Word order in ancient Greek: VSO, SVO, SOV, or all of the above? Champaign-Urbana, IL: University of Illinois dissertation.
Chomsky, Noam
1981Lectures on government and binding. Dordrecht: Foris.
Clahsen, Harald & Pieter Muysken
1996How adult second language learning differs from child first language development. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 191. 721–723.
Cloutier, Robert
2009West Germanic OV and VO: The status of exceptions. Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam dissertation.
1900Vergleichende Syntax der indogermanischen Sprachen, vol. 31. Strasbourg: Trübner.
Delbrück, Berthold
1911Germanische Syntax II: Zur Stellung des Verbums. Leipzig: Teubner.
Devine, Andrew M. & Laurence D. Stephens
2006Latin word order: Structured meaning and information. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dittmer, Arne & Ernst Dittmer
1998Studien zur Wortstellung—Satzgliedstellung in der althochdeutschen Tatianübersetzung. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Ebert, Robert Peter
1980Social and stylistic variation in Early New High German word order: The sentence frame (“Satzrahmen”). Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 1021. 357–398.
Ebert, Robert Peter
1981Social and stylistic variation in the order of auxiliary and non-finite verb in dependent clauses in Early New High German. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 1031. 204–237.
1995Verbal syntax in the early Germanic languages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University dissertation.
Eythórsson, Thórhallur
2011Variation in the syntax of the older runic inscriptions. Futhark 21. 27–50.
Filpus, Raija
1994Die Ausklammerung in der gesprochenen deutschen Sprache der Gegenwart. Tampere: University of Tampere dissertation.
Fourquet, Jean-Philippe
1938L'Ordre des éléments de la phrase en germanique ancien: Études de syntaxe de position. Paris: Les Belles Lettres
Greenberg, Joseph
1963Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In Joseph Greenberg (ed.), Universals of language, 73–113. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gries, Stefan Th
2009Statistics for linguists with R: A practical introduction. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Haegeman, Liliane
1992Theory and description in generative syntax: A case study in West Flemish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Haegeman, Liliane & Henk van Riemsdijk
1986Verb projection raising, scope, and the typology of rules affecting verbs. Linguistic Inquiry 171. 417–466.
Haider, Hubert
2010Wie wurde Deutsch OV? Zur diachronen Dynamik eines Strukturparameters der germanischen Sprachen. In Arne Ziegler (ed.), Historische Textgrammatik und historische Syntax des Deutschen: Traditionen, Innovationen, Perspektiven, vol. 11, 11–32. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Hinterhölzl, Roland
2015An interface account of word-order variation in Old High German. In Theresa Biberauer & George Walkden (eds.), Syntax over time: Lexical, morphological and information-structural interactions, 299–317. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
1987The core/periphery distinction in language acquisition. In Ann Miller & Joyce Powers (eds.), Proceedings of the fourth Eastern States Conference on Linguistics [ESCOL], 126–146. Columbus: The Ohio State University.
2009Getting off the GoldVarb standard: Introducing Rbrul for mixed-effects variable rule analysis. Language and Linguistics Compass 31. 359–383.
Kiparsky, Paul
1995Indo-European origins of Germanic syntax. In Adrian Battye & Ian Roberts (eds.), Clause structure and language change, 140–169. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kroch, Anthony & Anne Taylor
2000Verb-object order in Early Middle English. In Susan Pintzuk, George Tsoulas & Anthony Warner (eds.), Diachronic syntax: Models and mechanisms, 132–163. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lehmann, Winfred P
1972Proto-Germanic syntax. In Frans van Coetsem & Herbert Kufner (eds.), Toward a grammar of Proto-Germanic, 239–268. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Lenerz, Jürgen
1984Syntaktischer Wandel und Grammatiktheorie: Eine Untersuchung an Beispielen aus der Sprachgeschichte des Deutschen. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Light, Caitlin
2015Expletive there in West Germanic. In Theresa Biberauer & George Walkden (eds.), Syntax over time: Lexical, morphological and information-structural interactions, 17–35. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
1989The rightward movement of complements and adjuncts in the Old English of Beowulf. Language Variation and Change 11. 115–143.
R Development Core Team
2013R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna. [URL].
Ratkus, Artūras
2011The adjective inflection in Gothic and early Germanic: Structure and development. Cambridge: Cambridge University dissertation.
Robinson, Orrin
1997Clause subordination and verb placement in the Old High German Isidor translation. Heidelberg: Winter.
Salvi, Giampaolo
2011A formal approach to Latin word order. In Renato Oniga, Rossella Iovino & Guiliana Giusti (eds.), Formal linguistics and the teaching of Latin: Theoretical and applied perspectives in comparative grammar, 23–50. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars.
Sapp Christopher D
2014Extraposition in Middle and Early New High German. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 171. 129–156.
2011bThe verbal complex in Old High German: Evidence for SOV. Interdisciplinary Journal of Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis 161. 63–99.
Schallert, Oliver
2010Als Deutsch noch nicht OV war: Althochdeutsch im Spannungsfeld zwischen OV und VO. In Arne Ziegler (ed.), Historische Textgrammatik und Historische Syntax des Deutschen: Traditionen, Innovationen, Perspektiven, vol. 11, 365–394. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Schäufele, Steven
1991Verb-medial clauses in Vedic: Some theoretical implications. In Hans Henrich Hock (ed.), Studies in Sanskrit syntax, 177–196. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Schlachter, Eva
2012Syntax und Informationsstruktur im Althochdeutschen: Untersuchungen am Beispiel der Isidor-Gruppe. Heidelberg: Winter.
Schmid, Tanja & Ralf Vogel
2004Dialectal variation in German 3-verb clusters: A surface-oriented optimality theoretic account. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 71. 235–274.
Taylor, Ann
1994The change from SOV to SVO in ancient Greek. Language Variation and Change 61. 1–37.
Taylor, Ann & Susan Pintzuk
2015Verb order, object position, and information status in Old English. In Theresa Biberauer & George Walkden (eds.), Syntax over time: Lexical, morphological and information-structural interactions, 318–335. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2014bSyntactic reconstruction and Proto-Germanic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wallenberg, Joel C
2015Antisymmetry and heavy NP shift across Germanic. In Theresa Biberauer & George Walkden (eds.), Syntax over time: Lexical, morphological and information-structural interactions, 336–349. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Watkins, Calvert
1976Towards Proto-Indo-European syntax: Problems and pseudo-problems. In Stanford Steever, Carol Walker & Salikoko Mufwene (eds.), Papers from the parasession on diachronic syntax, April 22, 1976, 305–326. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
Weerman, Fred
1993The diachronic consequences of first and second language acquisition: The change from OV to VO. Linguistics 311. 903–931.
Weiß, Helmut
ManuscriptDie rechte Satzperipherie im Althochdeutschen: Zur Verbstellung in dass-Sätzen.
West, Martin
2011Old Avestan syntax and stylistics. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Wöllstein-Leisten, Angelika, Axel Heilmann, Peter Stepan & Sten Vikner
1997Deutsche Satzstruktur: Grundlagen der syntaktischen Analyse. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.
Wunder, Dieter
1965Der Nebensatz bei Otfrid: Untersuchungen zur Syntax des deutschen Nebensatzes. Heidelberg: Winter.
Wurmbrand, Susi
2004Syntactic vs. post-syntactic movement. In Sophie Burelle & Stanca Somesfalean (eds.), Proceedings of the 2003 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Linguistic Association (CLA), 284–295. Montreal: University of Quebec.
Wurmbrand, Susi
2006Verb clusters, verb raising, and restructuring. In Martin Everaert & Henk van Riemsdijk (eds.), The Blackwell companion to syntax, vol. 51, 229–343. Oxford: Blackwell.
Zahn, Günther
1991Beobachtungen zur Ausklammerung und Nachfeldbesetzung in gesprochenem Deutsch. Erlangen: Palm und Enke.
Cited by
Cited by 6 other publications
Baechler, Raffaela & Simon Pröll
2018. Loss and preservation of case in Germanic non-standard varieties. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 3:1
Fuß, Eric
2022. Early German = Slavic?. Theoretical Linguistics 48:1-2 ► pp. 57 ff.
2019. Verbstellungsvariation bei Exklamativen aus diachroner Perspektive. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 141:4 ► pp. 477 ff.
Somers, Katerina, Mary Allison, Matthew Boutilier & Robert Howell
2018. Syntactic Echoes Of Pronominal Cliticization And Grammaticalization: The Case Of Old High German First‐Person Plural ‐Mes. Transactions of the Philological Society 116:2 ► pp. 218 ff.
STRUIK, TARA & GERT-JAN SCHOENMAKERS
2023. When information structure exploits syntax: The relation between the loss of VO and scrambling in Dutch. Journal of Linguistics 59:3 ► pp. 655 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 february 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.