Adverbial Resumption in Verb Second Languages

Abstract

In Verb Second (V2) languages, the finite verb typically appears in the second position of the main clause. Languages displaying this configuration typically also allow patterns in which a nominal element at the left edge of the clause is resumed by a nominal constituent which is an argument inside the sentence, effectively leading to a Verb Third (V3) pattern. Such patterns have been studied for a long time; on the other hand a similar pattern in which an initial adverbial constituent is resumed by a clause-internal element has been much less studied. The latter pattern is referred to as “adverbial resumption” and also has the character of being a V3 phenomenon. Therefore, the pattern is labeled “adverbial V3 resumption” or “adverbial V3.” Interestingly, adverbial resumption is absent from languages that do not have a V2 pattern, while those languages do display argumental resumption. This volume brings together recent advances in the study of adverbial V3 resumption. The pattern is discussed in relation to several different languages, addressing among other things issues of microvariation in contemporary varieties, and diachronic variation. These languages are covered: Medieval Romance, Old Italian, Old English, diachronic and synchronic varieties of German, varieties of Flemish and Dutch, Icelandic, varieties of Swedish, and Norwegian. Analytically, the various chapters provide comparative analyses which touch on the nature of sentence-external versus sentence-internal adjuncts, and the fine-grained architecture of the clausal functional hierarchy.