The syntax of subordination in Cimbrian and the rationale behind language contact

Abstract

The aim of this contribution is twofold: (i) providing a detailed description of subordination in Cimbrian and (ii) discussing the concept of language contact in terms of feature transfer. As has been recently pointed out, Cimbrian declarative and relative clauses display a unique pattern among the German dialects w.r.t. embedding. In fact, different complementizers trigger different syntax as regards the position of the finite verb. In our contribution, we extend the analysis to adverbial clauses for the first time and also investigate the double pattern of embedding in indirect wh-questions. Our data suggest that contact-induced syntactic change can be explained in terms of transfer of single abstract features.

Feature Borrowing in Language Contact

“…These clear-cut differences between the syntactic behavior of az with respect to ke force us to assume a double system of complementizers-in line with a large body of literature (see, among others, Poletto 2009, 2011;Padovan 2011;Bidese et al 2012Bidese et al , 2014Padovan et al 2016). There is, indeed, no historical evidence for a high az, as we would coherently expect for a Germanic V2 variety; on the contrary, high complementizers has been assumed for medieval Romance languages (see Wolfe 2019).…”

“…3 Again, we refer to a large amount of research on this topic. In particular, see Poletto (2009, 2011), Padovan (2011), Bidese et al (2012Bidese et al ( , 2014, Padovan et al (2016), Bidese (2017). 4 We follow the proposal by Poletto (2011, based on Bhatt andYoon 1991), who differentiated between complementizers that act as indicators of mood, such as the Cimbrian az 'that', and complementizers that act as pure subordinators (see Poletto 2011, p. 318, Note 10 andBidese 2017).…”

A Criterial Approach to the Cartography of V2

“…However, according to the locus of the generation of the complementizer, one may predict the possibility that a V2 language may have both type of embedded V2s. This is the case for Cimbrian, which has been described as having a double complementizer system in Grewendorf & Poletto (2011), Tomaselli et al 2012and Bidese et al (2014).…”

“…Regarding the syntactic variation in Cimbrian, Bidese et al (2014) provide an explanation of contact-induced change with Italian.…”

Adjective orders in Cimbrian DPs

“…without any other constituent, before the finite verb in main declarative sentences; (3) Postverbal unstressed forms are encliticized onto the finite verb in main declarative sentences and onto the complementizer in subordinate sentences (Poletto and Tomaselli 2002;Bidese 2008;Kolmer 2005, Kolmer 2012Bidese 2011;Abraham 2011); (c) the subordination system. Cimbrian displays a sophisticated correlation of word order patterns and types of complementizers; some complementizers (prototypically az 'that') require a word order pattern that is asymmetric with respect to the one found in matrix clauses; other complementizers (prototypically ke 'that', but also ombrómm 'because') a word order pattern that is perfectly symmetric to that of the main sentence trigger Poletto 2009, Grewendorf andPoletto 2011;Padovan 2011, Bidese et al 2012bBidese et al 2013, Bidese et al 2014Bidese and Tomaselli 2016).…”