Séminaire de Recherche en Linguistique

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Description du séminaire Print

Titre Adverbial Clauses and Verb Second. Thirty-five Years of Adverbial Clauses (Erasmus mobility Geneva 1-5 April 2019)
Conférencier Liliane Haegeman (Université de Gand)
Date lundi 01 avril 2019  changement de jour
Heure 14h15  changement d'horaire
Salle PHIL 201 changement de salle
Description

Erasmus mobilityGeneva 1-5 April 2019

Liliane Haegeman (Ghent University/DiaLing)

Adverbial clauses and verb second
Thirty-five years of adverbial clauses

(1) The typology of adverbial clauses

The presentation will start from the observation that three kinds of adverbial clauses seem to
have to be distinguished, exemplified by the three while clauses in (i): in (ia), the while clause
is a temporal modifier of the event (i.e. the announcement of the resignation) expressed in the
host clause; in (ib) the concessive while clause provides background assumption for the
proposition encoded in the host clause; in (ic), the while clause is a temporal modifier of speech
act itself, providing a motivation for the utterance ‘her proposals are very innovative’.

(i) a. While we were talking about Theresa May, the BBC announced her resignation.
b. While the Prime Minister may be a conservative, her proposals are very
innovative.
c. While we are talking about Theresa May, her proposals are very innovative.

Many languages display the same sort of multivalent conjunctions (e.g. Dutch terwijl, French
tandis que), so the phenomenon is of a comparative interest.

The presentation will investigate the syntactic properties of these clauses focussing on
the extent to which these three types of clauses can/must be given different syntactic
representations in terms of the formal relation with the associated clause.
Evidence will be provided from English as well as from the Germanic languages,
illustrated on the basis of Dutch and Flemish, in particular the behaviour of adverbial clauses
in the Germanic ‘Verb Second’ pattern.

(2) The typology and interpretation of adverbial clauses and Verb Second
transgressions

The typology of adverbial clauses in relation to the Verb Second pattern is pursued focussing
on a set of unusual so called ‘Verb Third’ patterns which are considered unacceptable by
speakers of standard Dutch but which have been reported as fully acceptable for speakers of
the West Flemish dialect.

The relevant pattern is illustrated in (ii). While all varieties of Dutch have (iia), in
which the adverbial clause als hij niet slaagt (‘if he does not succeed’) is immediately
followed by the finite verb kan (‘can’), only West Flemish speakers (hence %) accept (iib) in
which the adverbial clause is followed by the subject Jan, which is then followed by the finite
verb. Such patterns as in (iib) are referred to in the literature as ‘V2 transgressions’ and have
been the focus of much research.

(ii) a. Als hij niet slaagt kan Jan herkansen.
if he not succeeds kan Jan resit
b. % Als hij niet slaagt, Jan kan herkansen.
if he not succeeds, Jan can resit

The micro-variation displayed by (iib) will be explored from a comparative perspective. Data
such as this show the importance of detailed study of language variation for a better
understanding of the language faculty. The work is grounded on native speaker intuitions as
well as on the philological and dialectology tradition that has long been the hall mark of the
Dutch Department at Ghent University.

(3) Adverbial die resumption in the Ghent variety

The nature of micro-variation in word order variation among Dutch and Flemish dialects will
be further explored focussing on the patterns in (iii):

(iii) a. %Volgende vrijdag die komt ze terug. Ghent/*StD
next Friday die comes she back
b. Volgende vrijdag dan komt ze terug. Ghent/StD
next Friday dan comes she back
c. Volgende vrijdag komt ze terug. Ghent/StD
next Friday comes she back

(iiia) is unique to the Ghent dialect of Dutch: the verb komt is preceded by a temporal modifier
volgende vrijdag (‘next Friday’) and what looks like a resumptive demonstrative pronoun
die. In all other varieties of Dutch (iiia) is impossible.
(iiib) is generally accepted throughout all varieties of Dutch: here a temporal modifier
volgende week is followed by a resumptive temporal adverb dan (‘then’).
(iiic) is a regular V2 clause and is also acceptable throughout the linguistic area: the
finite verb is preceded just by the temporal modifier.

At first sight, one might consider (iiia) as a dialect-specific alternative to (iiib). This is
the position taken in Zwart (1997), who assimilates (iiia) to (iiib). It will be shown, however,
that the superficial similarity between (iiia) and (iiib) is deceiving and that rather than being
most like (iiib), (iiia) should be seen as a variant realisation of (iiic). The implications of this
finding for the formal syntax of word order in Dutch, in particular for the derivation of ‘verb
second’ word order patterns will be explored.

   
Document(s) joint(s)
Haegeman_abstract.pdf