In
syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
, verb-second (V2) word order is a sentence structure in which the
finite verb
Traditionally, a finite verb (from la, fīnītus, past participle of to put an end to, bound, limit) is the form "to which number and person appertain", in other words, those inflected for number and person. Verbs were originally said to be ''fin ...
of a sentence or a
clause
In language, a clause is a constituent that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb with ...
is placed in the clause's second position, so that the verb is preceded by a single word or group of words (a single
constituent
Constituent or constituency may refer to:
Politics
* An individual voter within an electoral district, state, community, or organization
* Advocacy group or constituency
* Constituent assembly
* Constituencies of Namibia
Other meanings
* Const ...
).
Examples of V2 in English include (brackets indicating a single constituent):
* "Neither
do I", "
ever in my lifehave I seen such things"
If English used V2 in all situations, the following would be correct:
* "
*n school
N, or n, is the fourteenth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet# ...
learned I about animals", "
*hen she comes home from work
Hen commonly refers to a female animal: a female chicken, other galliformes, gallinaceous bird, any type of bird in general, or a lobster. It is also a slang term for a woman.
Hen or Hens may also refer to:
Places Norway
*Hen, Buskerud, a villa ...
takes she a nap"
V2
word order
In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...
is common in the
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, Engli ...
and is also found in Northeast Caucasian
Ingush, Uto-Aztecan
O'odham
The O'odham peoples, including the Tohono O'odham, the Pima people, Pima or Akimel O'odham, and the Hia C-ed O'odham, are indigenous people of the Americas, indigenous Uto-Aztecan peoples of the Sonoran desert in southern and central Arizona and ...
, and fragmentarily in Romance
Sursilvan
Sursilvan (; also ''romontsch sursilvan'' ; Sursilvan, Vallader, Surmiran, Sutsilvan, and Rumantsch Grischun: ''sursilvan''; Puter: ''sursilvaun'') is a group of dialects of the Romansh language spoken in the Swiss district of Surselva. It is t ...
(a Rhaeto-Romansh variety) and Finno-Ugric
Estonian
Estonian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe
* Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent
* Estonian language
* Estonian cuisine
* Estonian culture
See also ...
. Of the Germanic family, English is exceptional in having predominantly
SVO order instead of V2, although there are vestiges of the V2 phenomenon.
Most Germanic languages do not normally use V2 order in embedded clauses, with a few exceptions. In particular, German, Dutch, and Afrikaans revert to VF (verb final) word order after a
complementizer
In linguistics (especially generative grammar), complementizer or complementiser (glossing abbreviation: ) is a functional category (part of speech) that includes those words that can be used to turn a clause into the subject or object of a s ...
; Yiddish and Icelandic do, however, allow V2 in all declarative clauses: main, embedded, and subordinate.
Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to:
* People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir
* Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley
* Kashmiri language, their language
People with the name
* Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...
(an Indo-Aryan language) has V2 in 'declarative content clauses' but VF order in relative clauses.
Examples of verb second (V2)
The example sentences in (1) from German illustrate the V2 principle, which allows any constituent to occupy the first position as long as the second position is occupied by the finite verb. Sentences (1a) through to (1d) have the finite verb ''spielten'' 'played' in second position, with various constituents occupying the first position: in (1a) the subject is in first position; in (1b) the object is; in (1c) the temporal modifier is in first position; and in (1d) the locative modifier is in first position. Sentences (1e) and (1f) are ungrammatical because the finite verb no longer appears in the second position. (An
asterisk (*) indicates that an example is
grammatically unacceptable.)
(1) (a) Die Kinder spielten vor der Schule im Park Fußball.
The children played before school in the park Soccer
(b) Fußball spielten die Kinder vor der Schule im Park.
Soccer played the children before school in the park
(c) Vor der Schule spielten die Kinder im Park Fußball.
Before school played the children in the park soccer.
(d) Im Park spielten die Kinder vor der Schule Fußball.
In the park played the children before school soccer.
(e) *Vor der Schule Fußball spielten die Kinder im Park.
Before school soccer played the children in the park
(f) *Fußball die Kinder spielten vor der Schule im Park.
Soccer the children played before school in the park.
Classical accounts of verb second (V2)
In major theoretical research on V2 properties, researchers discussed that verb-final orders found in German and Dutch embedded clauses suggest that there is an underlying SOV order with specific syntactic movements rules that changes the underlying SOV order to derive a surface form where the finite verb is in the second position of the clause.
We first see a "verb preposing" rule which moves the finite verb to the left most position in sentence, then a "constituent preposing" rule which moves a constituent in front of the finite verb. Following these two rules will always result with the finite verb in second position.
"I like the man"
(a) Ich den Mann mag --> Underlying form in Modern German
I the man like
(b) mag ich den Mann --> Verb movement to left edge
like I the man
(c) den Mann mag ich --> Constituent moved to left edge
the man like I
Non-finite verbs and embedded clauses
Non-finite verbs
The V2 principle regulates the position of finite verbs only; its influence on
non-finite verb
A nonfinite verb is a derivative form of a verb unlike finite verbs. Accordingly, nonfinite verb forms are inflected for neither number nor person, and they cannot perform action as the root of an independent clause. In English, nonfinite verbs inc ...
s (infinitives, participles, etc.) is indirect. Non-finite verbs in V2 languages appear in varying positions depending on the language. In German and Dutch, for instance, non-finite verbs appear after the object (if one is present) in clause final position in main clauses (OV order). Swedish and Icelandic, in contrast, position non-finite verbs after the finite verb but before the object (if one is present) (VO order). That is, V2 operates on only the finite verb.
V2 in embedded clauses
(In the following examples, finite verb forms are in bold, non-finite verb forms are in ''italics'' and subjects are
underlined.)
Germanic languages vary in the application of V2 order in embedded clauses. They fall into three groups.
V2 in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Faroese
In these languages, the word order of clauses is generally fixed in two patterns of conventionally numbered positions. Both end with positions for (5) non-finite verb forms, (6) objects, and (7), adverbials.
In main clauses, the V2 constraint holds. The finite verb must be in position (2) and sentence adverbs in position (4). The latter include words with meanings such as 'not' and 'always'. The subject may be position (1), but when a topical expression occupies the position, the subject is in position (3).
In embedded clauses, the V2 constraint is absent. After the conjunction, the subject must immediately follow; it cannot be replaced by a topical expression. Thus, the first four positions are in the fixed order (1) conjunction, (2) subject, (3) sentence adverb, (4) finite verb
The position of the sentence adverbs is important to those theorists who see them as marking the start of a large
constituent
Constituent or constituency may refer to:
Politics
* An individual voter within an electoral district, state, community, or organization
* Advocacy group or constituency
* Constituent assembly
* Constituencies of Namibia
Other meanings
* Const ...
within the clause. Thus the finite verb is seen as inside that constituent in embedded clauses, but outside that constituent in V2 main clauses.
Swedish
:
Main clause Front Finite verb Subject Sentence adverb __ Non-finite verb Object Adverbial
Embedded clause __ Conjunction Subject Sentence adverb Finite verb Non-finite verb Object Adverbial
Main clause (a) I dag ville Lotte inte ''läsa tidningen''
today wanted Lotte not read the newspaper
"Lotte didn't want to read the paper today."
Embedded clause (b) att Lotte inte ville koka kaffe i dag
that Lotte not wanted brew coffee today
"that Lotte didn't want to make coffee today."
Danish
:
So-called
Perkerdansk is an example of a variety that does not follow the above.
Norwegian
(with multiple adverbials and multiple non-finite forms, in two varieties of the language)
:
Faroese
Unlike continental Scandinavian languages, the sentence adverb may either precede or follow the finite verb in embedded clauses. A (3a) slot is inserted here for the following sentence adverb alternative.
:
V2 in German
In main clauses, the V2 constraint holds. As with other Germanic languages, the finite verb must be in the second position. However, any non-finite forms must be in final position. The subject may be in the first position, but when a topical expression occupies the position, the subject follows the finite verb.
In embedded clauses, the V2 constraint does not hold. The
finite verb
Traditionally, a finite verb (from la, fīnītus, past participle of to put an end to, bound, limit) is the form "to which number and person appertain", in other words, those inflected for number and person. Verbs were originally said to be ''fin ...
form must be adjacent to any non-finite at the end of the clause.
German grammarians traditionally divide sentences into fields. Subordinate clauses preceding the main clause are said to be in the first field (Vorfeld), clauses following the main clause in the final field (Nachfeld).
The central field (Mittelfeld) contains most or all of a clause, and is bounded by left bracket (Linke Satzklammer) and right bracket (Rechte Satzklammer) positions.
In main clauses, the initial element (subject or topical expression) is said to be located in the first field, the V2 finite verb form in the left bracket, and any non-finite verb forms in the right bracket.
In embedded clauses, the conjunction is said to be located in the left bracket, and the verb forms in the right bracket. In German embedded clauses, a finite verb form follows any non-finite forms.
German
:
V2 in Dutch and Afrikaans
V2 word order is used in main clauses, the finite verb must be in the second position. However, in subordinate clauses two word orders are possible for the verb clusters.
Main clauses:
Dutch
:
This analysis suggests a close parallel between the V2 finite form in main clauses and the conjunctions in embedded clauses. Each is seen as an introduction to its clause-type, a function which some modern scholars have equated with the notion of
specifier. The analysis is supported in spoken Dutch by the placement of
clitic pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take dif ...
subjects. Forms such as ze cannot stand alone, unlike the full-form equivalent zij. The words to which they may be attached are those same introduction words: the V2 form in a main clause, or the conjunction in an embedded clause.
:
Subordinate clauses:
In Dutch subordinate clauses two word orders are possible for the verb clusters and are referred to as the "red": ''omdat ik heb gewerkt'', "because I have worked": like in English, where the auxiliary verb precedes the past particle, and the "green": ''omdat ik gewerkt heb,'' where the past particle precedes the auxiliary verb, "because I worked have": like in German. In Dutch, the green word order is the most used in speech, and the red is the most used in writing, particularly in journalistic texts, but the green is also used in writing as is the red in speech. Unlike in English however adjectives and adverbs must precede the verb:
''dat het boek groen is'', "that the book green is".
:
V2 in Icelandic and Yiddish
These languages freely allow V2 order in embedded clauses.
Icelandic
Two word-order patterns are largely similar to continental Scandinavian. However, in main clauses an extra slot is needed for when the front position is occupied by Það. In these clauses the subject follows any sentence adverbs. In embedded clauses, sentence adverbs follow the finite verb (an optional order in Faroese).
:
In more radical contrast with other Germanic languages, a third pattern exists for embedded clauses with the conjunction followed by the V2 order: front-finite verb-subject.
:
Yiddish
Unlike Standard German, Yiddish normally has verb forms before Objects (SVO order), and in embedded clauses has conjunction followed by V2 order.
:
V2 in root clauses
One type of embedded clause with V2 following the conjunction is found throughout the Germanic languages, although it is more common in some than it is others. These are termed root clauses. They are
declarative content clause In grammar, a content clause is a dependent clause that provides content implied or commented upon by an independent clause. The term was coined by Danish linguist Otto Jespersen. They are also known as noun clauses.
English
In English, there ar ...
s, the
direct object
In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...
s of so-called bridge verbs, which are understood to quote a statement. For that reason, they exhibit the V2 word order of the equivalent direct quotation.
Danish
Items other than the subject are allowed to appear in front position.
:
Swedish
Items other than the subject are occasionally allowed to appear in front position. Generally, the statement must be one with which the speaker agrees.
:
This order is not possible with a statement with which the speaker does not agree.
:
Norwegian
:
German
Root clause V2 order is possible only when the conjunction dass is omitted. In such cases, formal usage also places the finite verb form into the present subjunctive (German ''Konjunktiv I'') if the verb form is clearly distinguishable from the indicative; if not, the past subjunctive (German ''Konjunktiv II'') is used.
: By contrast, a form with an embedded first-person subject would usually use the past subjunctive here, since the present indicative and subjunctive appear identical: ''Er behauptet, ich hätte'' (instead of ''habe'') ''es zur Post gebracht.''
Compare the normal embed-clause order after dass
:
Perspective effects on embedded V2
There are a limited number of V2 languages that can allow for embedded verb movement for a specific pragmatic effect similar to that of English. This is due to the perspective of the speaker. Languages such as German and Swedish have embedded verb second. The embedded verb second in these kinds of languages usually occur after 'bridge verbs'.
(Bridge verbs are common verbs of speech and thoughts such as "say", "think", and "know", and the word "that" is not needed after these verbs. For example: I think he is coming.)
Based on an
assertion theory, the perspective of a speaker is reaffirmed in embedded V2 clauses. A speaker's sense of commitment to or responsibility for V2 in embedded clauses is greater than a non-V2 in embedded clause. This is the result of V2 characteristics. As shown in the examples below, there is a greater commitment to the truth in the embedded clause when V2 is in place.
Variations of V2
Variations of V2 order such as V1 (verb-initial word order), V3 and V4 orders are widely attested in many Early Germanic and Medieval Romance languages. These variations are possible in the languages however it is severely restricted to specific contexts.
V1 word order
V1 (
verb-initial word order
In syntax, verb-initial (V1) word order is a word order in which the verb appears before the subject and the object. In the more narrow sense, this term is used specifically to describe the word order of V1 languages (a V1 language being a languag ...
) is a type of structure that contains the finite verb as the initial clause element. In other words the verb appears before the subject and the object of the sentence.
(a) Max y-il
s no' tx;i;">small>s no' tx;i; o naq Lwin">small>o naq Lwin (Mayan)
PFV A3-see CLF dog CLF Pedro
'The dog saw Pedro.'
V3 word order
V3 (verb-third word order) is a variation of V2 in which the finite verb is in third position with two constituents preceding it. In V3, like in V2 word order, the constituents preceding the finite verb are not categorically restricted, as the constituents can be a DP, a PP, a CP and so on.
V2 and left edge filling trigger (LEFT)
V2 is fundamentally derived from a morphological obligatory exponence effect at sentence level. The left edge filling trigger (LEFT) effects are usually seen in classical V2 languages such as Germanic languages and Old Romance languages. The left edge filling trigger is independently active in morphology as EPP effects are found in word-internal levels. The obligatory exponence derives from absolute displacement, ergative displacement and ergative doubling in inflectional morphology. In addition, second position rules in clitic second languages demonstrate post-syntactic rules of LEFT movement. Using the language Breton as an example, absence of a pre-tense expletive will allow for the LEFT to occur to avoid tense-first. The LEFT movement is free from syntactic rules which is evidence for a post-syntactic phenomenon. With the LEFT movement, V2 word order can be obtained as seen in the example below.
In this Breton example, the finite head is phonetically realized and agrees with the category of the preceding element. The pre-tense "Bez" is used in front of the finite verb to obtain the V2 word order. (finite verb "nevo" is bolded).
Syntactic verb second
It is said that V2 patterns are a syntactic phenomenon and therefore have certain environments where it can and cannot be tolerated. Syntactically, V2 requires a left-peripheral head (usually C) with an occupied specifier and paired with raising the highest verb-auxiliary to that head. V2 is usually analyzed as the co-occurrence of these requirements, which can also be referred to as "triggers". The left-peripheral head, which is a requirement that causes the effect of V2, sets further requirements on a phrase XP that occupies the initial position, so that this phrase XP may always have specific featural characteristics.
V2 in English
Modern English differs greatly in word order from other modern Germanic languages, but earlier English shared many similarities. For this reason, some scholars propose a description of Old English with V2 constraint as the norm. The history of English syntax is thus seen as a process of losing the constraint.
Old English
In these examples, finite verb forms are in , non-finite verb forms are in and subjects are .
Main clauses
Position of object
In examples ''b'', ''c'' and ''d'', the
object
Object may refer to:
General meanings
* Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept
** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place
** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter
* Goal, an ai ...
of the clause precedes a non-finite verb form. Superficially, the structure is verb-subject-object- verb. To capture generalities, scholars of
syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
and
linguistic typology
Linguistic typology (or language typology) is a field of linguistics that studies and classifies languages according to their structural features to allow their comparison. Its aim is to describe and explain the structural diversity and the co ...
treat them as basically
subject-object-verb (SOV) structure, modified by the V2 constraint. Thus Old English is classified, to some extent, as an SOV language. However, example ''a'' represents a number of Old English clauses with object following a non-finite verb form, with the superficial structure verb-subject-verb object. A more substantial number of clauses contain a single finite verb form followed by an object, superficially verb-subject-object. Again, a generalisation is captured by describing these as
subject–verb–object (SVO) modified by V2. Thus Old English can be described as intermediate between SOV languages (like German and Dutch) and SVO languages (like Swedish and Icelandic).
Effect of subject pronouns
When the subject of a clause was a personal pronoun, V2 did not always operate.
However, V2 verb-subject inversion occurred without exception after a question word or the negative ne, and with few exceptions after þa even with pronominal subjects.
Inversion of a subject pronoun also occurred regularly after a direct quotation.
Embedded clauses
Embedded clauses with pronoun subjects were not subject to V2. Even with noun subjects, V2 inversion did not occur.
Yes-no questions
In a similar clause pattern, the finite verb form of a
yes-no question occupied the first position
Middle English
Continuity
Early Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
generally preserved V2 structure in clauses with nominal subjects.
As in Old English, V2 inversion did not apply to clauses with pronoun subjects.
Change
Late Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
texts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries show increasing incidence of clauses without the inversion associated with V2.
Negative clauses were no longer formed with ne (or na) as the first element. Inversion in negative clauses was attributable to other causes.
Vestiges in Modern English
As in earlier periods,
Modern English normally has subject-verb order in
declarative clauses and
inverted verb-subject order in
interrogative clauses. However these norms are observed irrespective of the number of clause elements preceding the verb.
Classes of verbs in Modern English: auxiliary and lexical
Inversion in Old English sentences with a combination of two verbs could be described in terms of their finite and non-finite forms. The word which participated in inversion was the finite verb; the verb which retained its position relative to the object was the non-finite verb. In most types of Modern English clause, there are two verb forms, but the verbs are considered to belong to different syntactic classes. The verbs which participated in inversion have evolved to form a class of
auxiliary verbs
An auxiliary verb (abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a p ...
which may mark
tense, aspect and mood; the remaining majority of verbs with full
semantic
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
value are said to constitute the class of
lexical verb In linguistics a lexical verb or main verb is a member of an open class of verbs that includes all verbs except auxiliary verbs. Lexical verbs typically express action, state, or other predicate meaning. In contrast, auxiliary verbs express grammat ...
s. The exceptional type of clause is that of
declarative clause with a lexical verb in a
present simple
The simple present, present simple or present indefinite is one of the verb forms associated with the present tense in modern English. It is commonly referred to as a tense, although it also encodes certain information about aspect in addition ...
or
past simple
The simple past, past simple or past indefinite, sometimes called the preterite, is the basic form of the past tense in Modern English. It is used principally to describe events in the past, although it also has some other uses. Regular English ...
form.
Questions
Like Yes/No questions, interrogative Wh- questions are regularly formed with
inversion of subject and auxiliary. Present Simple and Past Simple questions are formed with the auxiliary do, a process known as
do-support
''Do''-support (or ''do''-insertion), in English grammar, is the use of the auxiliary verb ''do'', including its inflected forms ''does'' and ''did'', to form negated clauses and questions as well as other constructions in which subject–auxili ...
.
:
:::(see
subject-auxiliary inversion in questions)
With topic adverbs and adverbial phrases
In certain patterns similar to Old and Middle English, inversion is possible. However, this is a matter of stylistic choice, unlike the constraint on interrogative clauses.
negative or restrictive adverbial first
:
:::(see
negative inversion
In linguistics, negative inversion is one of many types of subject–auxiliary inversion in English. A negation (e.g. ''not'', ''no'', ''never'', ''nothing'', etc.) or a word that implies negation (''only'', ''hardly'', ''scarcely'') or a phrase co ...
)
comparative adverb or adjective first
:
After the preceding classes of adverbial, only auxiliary verbs, not lexical verbs, participate in inversion
locative or temporal adverb first
:
prepositional phrase first
:
:::(see
locative inversion,
directive inversion)
After the two latter types of adverbial, only one-word lexical verb forms (Present Simple or Past Simple), not auxiliary verbs, participate in inversion, and only with noun-phrase subjects, not pronominal subjects.
Direct quotations
When the object of a verb is a verbatim quotation, it may precede the verb, with a result similar to Old English V2. Such clauses are found in storytelling and in news reports.
:
:::(see
quotative inversion)
Declarative clauses without inversion
Corresponding to the above examples, the following clauses show the normal Modern English subject-verb order.
Declarative equivalents
:
Equivalents without topic fronting
:
French
Modern French is a
subject-verb-object (SVO) language like other
Romance languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
(though
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
was a
subject-object-verb language). However, V2 constructions existed in
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
and were more common than in other early Romance language texts. It has been suggested that this may be due to influence from the Germanic
Frankish language
Frankish ( reconstructed endonym: *), also known as Old Franconian or Old Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul, its speakers in Picardy and ...
. Modern French has vestiges of the V2 system similar to those found in modern English.
The following sentences have been identified as possible examples of V2 syntax in Old French:
:
:
:
Old French
Similarly to Modern French,
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
allows a range of constituents to precede the finite verb in the V2 position.
Old Occitan
A language that is compared to Old French is
Old Occitan
Old Occitan ( oc, occitan ancian, label=Occitan language, Modern Occitan, ca, occità antic), also called Old Provençal, was the earliest form of the Occitano-Romance languages, as attested in writings dating from the eighth through the fourteen ...
, which is said to be the sister of Old French. Although the two languages are thought to be sister languages, Old Occitan exhibits a relaxed V2 whereas Old French has a much more strict V2. However, the differences between the two languages extend past V2 and also differ in a variation of V2, which is V3. In both language varieties, occurrence of V3 can be triggered by the presence of an initial frame-setting clause or adverbial (1).
Other languages
Kotgarhi and Kochi
In his 1976 three-volume study of two languages of
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...
, Hendriksen reports on two intermediate cases: Kotgarhi and Kochi. Although neither language shows a regular V-2 pattern, they have evolved to the point that main and subordinate clauses differ in word order and auxiliaries may separate from other parts of the verb:
Hendriksen reports that relative clauses in Kochi show a greater tendency to have the finite verbal element in clause-final position than matrix clauses do (III:188).
Ingush
In
Ingush, "for main clauses, other than episode-initial and other all-new ones, verb-second order is most common. The verb, or the finite part of a compound verb or analytic tense form (i.e. the light verb or the auxiliary), follows the first word or phrase in the clause."
O'odham
O'odham
The O'odham peoples, including the Tohono O'odham, the Pima people, Pima or Akimel O'odham, and the Hia C-ed O'odham, are indigenous people of the Americas, indigenous Uto-Aztecan peoples of the Sonoran desert in southern and central Arizona and ...
has relatively free V2 word order within clauses; for example, all of the following sentences mean "the boy brands the pig":
ceoj ʼo g ko:jĭ ''ceposid''
ko:jĭ ʼo g ceoj ''ceposid''
ceoj ʼo ''ceposid'' g ko:jĭ
ko:jĭ ʼo ''ceposid'' g ceoj
''ceposid'' ʼo g ceoj g ko:jĭ
''ceposid'' ʼo g ko:jĭ g ceoj
The finite verb is "
'o" which appears after a constituent, in second position
Despite the general freedom of sentence word order, O'odham is fairly strictly verb-second in its placement of the auxiliary verb (in the above sentences, it is ''ʼo''; in the following it is ''ʼañ''):
Affirmative: ''cipkan'' ʼañ = "I am working"
Negative: pi ʼañ ''cipkan'' = "I am not working"
ot *pi ''cipkan'' ʼañ
Sursilvan
Among dialects of the
Romansh, V2 word order is limited to
Sursilvan
Sursilvan (; also ''romontsch sursilvan'' ; Sursilvan, Vallader, Surmiran, Sutsilvan, and Rumantsch Grischun: ''sursilvan''; Puter: ''sursilvaun'') is a group of dialects of the Romansh language spoken in the Swiss district of Surselva. It is t ...
, the insertion of entire phrases between auxiliary verbs and participles occurs, as in 'Cun Mariano Tschuor ha Augustin Beeli ''discurriu'' ' ('Mariano Tschuor has spoken with Augustin Beeli'), as compared to
Engadinese 'Cun Rudolf Gasser ha ''discurrü'' Gion Peider Mischol' ('Rudolf Gasser has spoken with Gion Peider Mischol'.)
The constituent that is bounded by the auxiliary, ''ha'', and the participle, ''discurriu'', is known as a Satzklammer or 'verbal bracket'.
Estonian
In
Estonian
Estonian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe
* Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent
* Estonian language
* Estonian cuisine
* Estonian culture
See also ...
, V2 word order is very frequent in the literate register, but less frequent in the spoken register. When V2 order does occur, it is found in main clauses, as illustrated in (1).
Unlike Germanic V2 languages, Estonian has several instances where V2 word order is not attested in embedded clauses, such as wh-interrogatives (2), exclamatives (3), and non-subject-initial clauses (4).
Welsh
In Welsh, V2 word order is found in Middle Welsh, but not in Old and Modern Welsh which only has verb-initial order. Middle Welsh displays three characteristics of V2 grammar:
(1) A finite verb in the C-domain
(2) The constituent preceding the verb can be any constituent (often driven by pragmatic features).
(3) Only one constituent preceding the verb in subject position
As we can see in the examples of V2 in Welsh below, there is only one constituent preceding the finite verb, but any kind of constituent (such as a noun phrase NP, adverb phrase AP and preposition phrase PP) can occur in this position.
Middle Welsh can also exhibit variations of V2 such as cases of V1 (verb-initial word order) and V3 orders. However, these variations are restricted to specific contexts such as in sentences that has impersonal verbs, imperatives, answers or direct responses to questions or commands and idiomatic sayings. It is also possible to have a preverbal particle preceding the verb in V2, however these kind of sentences are limited as well.
Wymysorys
Wymysory is classified as a West-Germanic language, however it can exhibit various Slavonic characteristics. It is argued that Wymysorys enables its speaker to operate between two word order system that represent two forces driving the grammar of this language Germanic and Slavonic. The Germanic system is not as flexible and allows for V2 order to exist in it form while the Slavonic system is relatively free. Due to the rigid word order in the Germanic system, the placement of the verb is determines by syntactic rules in which V2 word order is commonly respected.
Wymysory, like with other languages that exhibit V2 word order, the finite verb is in second position with a constituent of any category preceding the verb such as DP, PP, AP and so on.
Classical Portuguese
Compared to other Romance languages, the V2 word order has existed in Classical Portuguese a lot longer. Although Classical Portuguese is a V2 language, V1 occurred more frequently and as a result of this, it is argued whether or not Classical Portuguese really is a V2-like language. However, Classical Portuguese is a relaxed V2 language, meaning V2 patterns coexist with its variations, which are V1 and/or V3. In the case of Classical Portuguese, there is a strong relationship between V1 and V2 due to V2 clauses being derived from V1 clauses. In languages, such as Classical Portuguese, where both V1 and V2 exist, both patterns depend on the movement of the verb to a high position of the CP layer, with the difference being whether or not a phrase is moved to a preverbal position.
Although V1 occurred more frequently in Classical Portuguese, V2 is the more frequent order found in matrix clauses. Post-verbal subjects may also occupy a high position in the clause and can precede VP adverbs. In (1) and (2), we can see that the adverb 'bem' can precede or proceed the post-verbal subject.
In (2), the post-verbal subject is understood as an informational focus, but the same cannot be said for (1) because the difference of the positions determine how the subject is interpreted.
Structural analysis of V2
Various structural analyses of V2 have been developed, including within the model of dependency grammar and generative grammar.
Structural analysis in dependency grammar
Dependency grammar
Dependency grammar (DG) is a class of modern grammatical theories that are all based on the dependency relation (as opposed to the ''constituency relation'' of phrase structure) and that can be traced back primarily to the work of Lucien Tesni ...
(DG) can accommodate the V2 phenomenon simply by stipulating that one and only one constituent can be a predependent of the finite verb (i.e. a dependent which precedes its head) in declarative (matrix) clauses (in this, Dependency Grammar assumes only one clausal level and one position of the verb, instead of a distinction between a VP-internal and a higher clausal position of the verb as in Generative Grammar, cf. the next section). On this account, the V2 principle is violated if the finite verb has more than one predependent or no predependent at all. The following DG structures of the first four German sentences above illustrate the analysis (the sentence means 'The kids play soccer in the park before school'):
::
![V2 trees 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/V2_trees_1.png)
The finite verb ''spielen'' is the root of all clause structure. The V2 principle requires that this root have a single predependent, which it does in each of the four sentences.
The four English sentences above involving the V2 phenomenon receive the following analyses:
::
Structural analysis in generative grammar
In the theory of
Generative Grammar
Generative grammar, or generativism , is a linguistic theory that regards linguistics as the study of a hypothesised innate grammatical structure. It is a biological or biologistic modification of earlier structuralist theories of linguistic ...
, the verb second phenomenon has been described as an application of
X-bar theory
In linguistics, X-bar theory is a model of phrase-structure grammar and a theory of syntactic category formation that was first proposed by Noam Chomsky in 1970Chomsky, Noam (1970). Remarks on Nominalization. In: R. Jacobs and P. Rosenbaum (eds.) ...
. The combination of a first position for a phrase and a second position for a single verb has been identified as the combination of ''specifier'' and ''head'' of a phrase. The part after the finite verb is then the ''complement''. While the sentence structure of English is usually analysed in terms of three levels, CP, IP, and VP, in German linguistics the consensus has emerged that there is no IP in German.
The VP (verb phrase) structure assigns position and functions to the arguments of the verb. Hence, this structure is shaped by the grammatical properties of the V (verb) which
heads
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may no ...
the structure.
The CP (complementizer phrase) structure incorporates the grammatical information which identifies the clause as declarative or interrogative, main or embedded. The structure is shaped by the abstract C (complementiser) which is considered the head of the structure. In embedded clauses the C position accommodates complementizers. In German declarative main clauses, C hosts the finite verb.
Thus the V2 structure is analysed as
:1 Topic element (specifier of CP)
:2 Finite-verb form (C=head of CP) i.e. verb-second
:3 Remainder of the clause
In embedded clauses, the C position is occupied by a complementizer. In most Germanic languages (but not in Icelandic or Yiddish), this generally prevents the finite verb from moving to C.
:The structure is analysed as
::1 Complementizer (C=head of CP)
::2 Bulk of clause (VP), including, in German, the subject.
::3 Finite verb (V position)
This analysis does not provide a structure for the instances in some language of root clauses after bridge verbs.
:Example: Danish Vi ved at denne bog har Bo ikke læst with the object of the embedded clause fronted.
: (Literally 'We know that this book has Bo not read')
The solution is to allow verbs such as ved to accept a clause with a second (recursive) CP.
[Sten Vikner: Sten Vikner: Verb movement and expletive subjects in the Germanic languages. Oxford University Press, 1995.]
: The complementizer occupies C position in the upper CP.
: The finite verb moves to the C position in the lower CP.
See also
*
Second position clitics
Notes
Literature
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*Andrason, A. (2020). Verb second in Wymysorys. Oxford University Press.
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*Hook, P. E. 1976. Is Kashmiri an SVO Language? Indian Linguistics 37: 133–142.
*Jouitteau, M. (2020). Verb second and the left edge filling trigger. Oxford University
*Liver, Ricarda. 2009. Deutsche Einflüsse im Bündnerromanischen. In Elmentaler, Michael (Hrsg.) Deutsch und seine Nachbarn. Peter Lang. {{ISBN, 978-3-631-58885-7
*König, E. and J. van der Auwera (eds.). 1994. The Germanic Languages. London and New York: Routledge.
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*Meelen, M. (2020). Reconstructing the rise of verb second in welsh. Oxford University Press.
*Nichols, Johanna. 2011. Ingush Grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.
*Osborne T. 2005. Coherence: A dependency grammar analysis. SKY Journal of Linguistics 18, 223–286.
*Ouhalla, J. 1994. Transformational grammar: From rules to principles and parameters. London: Edward Arnold.
*Peters, P. 2013. The Cambridge Dictionary of English Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*Posner, R. 1996. The Romance languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*Rowlett, P. 2007. The Syntax of French. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*van Riemsdijk, H. and E. Williams. 1986. Introduction to the theory of grammar. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
*Tesnière, L. 1959. Éleménts de syntaxe structurale. Paris: Klincksieck.
*Thráinsson, H. 2007. The Syntax of Icelandic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*Walkden, G. (2017). Language contact and V3 in germanic varieties new and old. ''The Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics, 20''(1), 49-81.
*Woods, R. (2020). A different perspective on embedded verb second. Oxford University Press.
*Woods, R., Wolfe, s., & UPSO eCollections. (2020). ''Rethinking verb second'' (First ed.). Oxford University Press.
*Zwart, J-W. 2011. The Syntax of Dutch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Linguistic typology
Word order