<OT> New Posting: ROA-555

[Rutgers Optimality Archive]

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ROA 555-1102

Dialectal Variation in German 3-Verb-Clusters. A surface-oriented OT
account

Tanja Schmid <schmidta@ims.uni-stuttgart.de>
Ralf Vogel <rvogel@ling.uni-potsdam.de>

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=555


Abstract:
We present data from an empirical investigation on the dialectal
variation in the syntax of German 3-verb clusters, consisting of a
temporal auxiliary, a modal verb and a predicative verb. The ordering
possibilities vary largely among the dialects. Some of the orders that
we found only occur under particular stress assignments. We assume
that these orders fulfil an information structural purpose, and that
the reordering processes are only changes in the linear order of the
elements which is represented exclusively at the surface syntactic
level, PF (Phonetic Form). Our OT account offers a multifactorial
perspective on the phenomenon, and in this follows a traditional point
of view within German linguistics that has nearly been forgotten about
within the generative discourse.

The guiding idea for the OT implementation is that the linear order of
elements is only represented at PF (as has become common within
Chomskyan syntax) and that it is influenced by (abstract) syntactic,
semantic and prosodic factors. PFs are candidates in an OT competition
where abstract syntactic, semantic and phonological correspondence and
alignment constraints impose conflicting ordering requirements. The
different ranking of these constraints yields the different dialects. 

Keywords: German, dialects, verbal complex, verb cluster, syntax-phonology
interface, information structure

Areas: Syntax

Direct link: http://roa.rutgers.edu/view.php3?roa=555