Abstract
Some varieties of German, Low German and North Frisian spoken in the far north of Germany (in South Schleswig) have infinitive constructions introduced by und ‘and’ where the infinitive verbs precede their complements. These varieties, which are otherwise OV (ob-ject-verb), would thus seem to allow a VO-construction (verb-object).However, we analyse and-infinitives not as cases of VO inside OV grammars, but instead as V2-like constructions (similar to finite main clauses throughout Germanic, except English). And-infinitives show how OV grammars cope with “strange” input, as we see from the result being different from the source in crucial respects (the source presumably being non-native speakers of German, Low German and North Frisian who were native speakers of Danish).
Original language | Danish |
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Journal | Ny forskning i grammatik |
Issue | 29 |
Pages (from-to) | 28-49 |
ISSN | 2446-1709 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2022 |