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Article In:
Linguistics in the Netherlands 2024
Edited by Marco Bril and Kristel Doreleijers
[Nota Bene 1:2] 2024
► pp. 280–296

Als dan or dan als?

Preferences in clause order for Dutch conditionals

 | Radboud University Nijmegen
 | Radboud University Nijmegen
Dutch conditional sentences can occur in canonical clause order, such that the antecedent precedes the consequent, but also in non-canonical order, with the antecedent in sentence-final position. One explanation for the existence of this variety lies in the implicatures they convey: predictive conditionals have what Reuneker (2022) labels a more direct connectedness, possibly resulting in a larger preference for the canonical order than speech act conditionals, which are known for their indirect connectedness. Clause order preference could also be influenced by the desire to optimise discourse coherency (Lee 2001). We put these two factors to the test in an online experiment and found evidence for both theories but not for their interaction. Interestingly, we also found a general preference for the canonical order across all conditions.
Keywords: conditionals, clause order, connectedness, discourse coherency, Dutch
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Clause order and connectedness
    • 1.2Clause order and information structure
    • 1.3The current study
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Materials
    • 2.2Participants and procedure
  • 3.Results
  • 4.General discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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