The Syntax of Early English - Cryptm.org

The Verb-Second constraint and its loss 111follows objects and adverbs in surface word order. We assume that the baseposition of the finite verb corresponds to that of the non-finite verb, and thatthe finite verb moves to the CP domain. In (27c–e), we see that this movementdoes not occur in embedded clauses. Following the pioneering work of denBesten (1983), it is usually assumed that it is the complementizer dass that isresponsible for blocking V-movement: its presence in (27d–e) is incompatiblewith a fronted finite verb. In formal terms, the derivation of a Verb-Secondsentence (disregarding the relative order of I and VP, and word order withinVP) would be:(28)C"specC'C'C I"specI'I'I V"specV'V'… V …V/I to CV to IThe finite verb, generated as the head of the VP, moves to I, undergoing headto-headmovement to pick up its inflectional features Tense and Agreement.Subsequently, V/I moves to C if C is empty. The canonical position of thesubject is Spec,IP. An important consequence of this analysis must be noted:the first constituent, whether a subject (27a) or a topic (27b), is a constituentthat has been moved to the Spec,CP position. Movement is blocked when C isfilled by a lexical complementizer like that. This accounts for the incompatibilityof a lexical complementizer with a fronted finite verb, as in (27d–e).While there is substantial consensus in the literature that the core property ofVerb-Second languages like German is that V/I moves to C, the motivation forthis movement has been the subject of much speculation. We remain neutralon this issue, and simply assume that in this type of Verb-Second language, Cmust be lexical, whatever the precise motivation.In the modern languages, the Verb-Second phenomenon is not entirelyrestricted to main clauses. Verb-Second in embedded clauses is essentially oftwo types. The first type is attested in Frisian and Danish. These two languages