Abstract
Behaghel’s claim that verb finality in German dependent clauses (DCs) reflects Latin influence (1892, 1932) has been revived by Chirita (1997, 2003). According to Chirita, DC word order remains variable up to Early New High German, while in Latin, verb-finality is more frequent in DCs than main clauses (MCs); hence, she claims, German verb finality reflects Latin influence. This papers shows that the arguments for Latin influence are problematic and that the Modern German word order difference between MCs and DCs can be explained as the ultimate outcome of developments that started in early North and West Germanic. In the conclusion I briefly discuss similar developments in Western Romance and their implications for European contact linguistics.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 183-209 |
Number of pages | 27 |
Journal | Belgian Journal of Linguistics |
Volume | 33 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 31 2019 |
Keywords
- German
- Latin
- Romance
- Syntax
- Verb finality
- West Germanic
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language