Cover not available
Article published In:
Diachronica
Vol. 33:3 (2016) ► pp.367–411

Word order patterns in the Old High German right periphery and their Indo-European origins

I investigate deviations from the OV order in the OHG texts Isidor and Tatian. Abstracting away from cases of verb-second, post-verbal constituents tend to be heavy or focused. OHG thus has a head-final VP with extraposition of NPs and PPs. Likewise, verbal complexes with the order finite before non-finite are derived by Verb (Projection) Raising. Ancient Indo-European languages are also underlyingly OV with evidence for extraposition. This suggests that OHG inherited the head-final VP, extraposition and even V(P)R from Proto-Indo-European. Because extraposition and V(P)R are at the periphery of grammar, the resulting surface orders have not resulted in parametric change to the VP from Proto-Indo-European to present-day German.
Keywords: periphery, Verb Phrase, extraposition, Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Germanic, parameter, verbal complex, Old High German
Published online: 15 November 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.33.3.03sap
References (72)
Bader, Markus & Tanja Schmid. 2009. Verb clusters in colloquial German. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 121. 175–228. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baldi, Philip & Pierluigi Cuzzolin. 2009. Syntactic change in the history of Latin: Do new perspectives lead to new results? In Philip Baldi & Pierluigi Cuzzolin (eds.), New perspectives on historical Latin syntax, 865–894. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Bauer, Brigitte L.M. 2009. Word order. In Philip Baldi & Pierluigi Cuzzolin (eds.), New perspectives on historical Latin syntax, 241–316. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Behaghel, Otto. 1932. Deutsche Syntax: Eine geschichtliche Darstellung. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
. 1929. Zur Stellung des Verbs im Germanischen und Indogermanischen. Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der indo-germanischen Sprachen 561. 276–281.Google Scholar
Biberauer, Theresa, Anders Holmberg & Ian Roberts. 2014. A syntactic universal and its consequences. Linguistic Inquiry 451. 169–225. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bierwisch, Manfred. 1963. Grammatik des deutschen Verbs (Studia grammatica 2). Berlin: Akademie.Google Scholar
Bubenik, Vit. 1991. Nominal and pronominal objects in Sanskrit and Prakrit. In Hans Henrich Hock (ed.), Studies in Sanskrit syntax, 19–30. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.Google Scholar
Cervin, Richard. 1990. Word order in ancient Greek: VSO, SVO, SOV, or all of the above? Champaign-Urbana, IL: University of Illinois dissertation.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1981. Lectures on government and binding. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Clahsen, Harald & Pieter Muysken. 1996. How adult second language learning differs from child first language development. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 191. 721–723. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cloutier, Robert. 2009. West Germanic OV and VO: The status of exceptions. Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam dissertation.Google Scholar
DDD Referenzkorpus Altdeutsch. Online at [URL] (last accessed 7 August 2015.
Delbrück, Berthold. 1900. Vergleichende Syntax der indogermanischen Sprachen, vol. 31. Strasbourg: Trübner.Google Scholar
. 1911. Germanische Syntax II: Zur Stellung des Verbums. Leipzig: Teubner.Google Scholar
Devine, Andrew M. & Laurence D. Stephens. 2006. Latin word order: Structured meaning and information. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dittmer, Arne & Ernst Dittmer. 1998. Studien zur Wortstellung—Satzgliedstellung in der althochdeutschen Tatianübersetzung. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ebert, Robert Peter. 1980. Social and stylistic variation in Early New High German word order: The sentence frame (“Satzrahmen”). Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 1021. 357–398.Google Scholar
. 1981. Social and stylistic variation in the order of auxiliary and non-finite verb in dependent clauses in Early New High German. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 1031. 204–237.Google Scholar
Eggers, Hans. 1964. Der althochdeutsche Isidor. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Eythórsson, Thórhallur. 1995. Verbal syntax in the early Germanic languages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University dissertation.Google Scholar
. 2011. Variation in the syntax of the older runic inscriptions. Futhark 21. 27–50.Google Scholar
Filpus, Raija. 1994. Die Ausklammerung in der gesprochenen deutschen Sprache der Gegenwart. Tampere: University of Tampere dissertation.Google Scholar
Fourquet, Jean-Philippe. 1938. L'Ordre des éléments de la phrase en germanique ancien: Études de syntaxe de position. Paris: Les Belles LettresGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph. 1963. Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In Joseph Greenberg (ed.), Universals of language, 73–113. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gries, Stefan Th. 2009. Statistics for linguists with R: A practical introduction. Berlin: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane. 1992. Theory and description in generative syntax: A case study in West Flemish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane & Henk van Riemsdijk. 1986. Verb projection raising, scope, and the typology of rules affecting verbs. Linguistic Inquiry 171. 417–466.Google Scholar
Haider, Hubert. 2010. Wie wurde Deutsch OV? Zur diachronen Dynamik eines Strukturparameters der germanischen Sprachen. In Arne Ziegler (ed.), Historische Textgrammatik und historische Syntax des Deutschen: Traditionen, Innovationen, Perspektiven, vol. 11, 11–32. Berlin: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hinterhölzl, Roland. 2015. An interface account of word-order variation in Old High German. In Theresa Biberauer & George Walkden (eds.), Syntax over time: Lexical, morphological and information-structural interactions, 299–317. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hock, Hans Henrich. 2015. Proto-Indo-European verb-finality: Reconstruction, typology, validation. In Leonid Kulikov & Nikolaos Lavidas (eds.), Proto-Indo-European syntax and its development, 51–78. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hyams, Nina. 1987. The core/periphery distinction in language acquisition. In Ann Miller & Joyce Powers (eds.), Proceedings of the fourth Eastern States Conference on Linguistics [ESCOL], 126–146. Columbus: The Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Jäger, Agnes. 2008. History of German negation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Daniel E. 2009. Getting off the GoldVarb standard: Introducing Rbrul for mixed-effects variable rule analysis. Language and Linguistics Compass 31. 359–383. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kiparsky, Paul. 1995. Indo-European origins of Germanic syntax. In Adrian Battye & Ian Roberts (eds.), Clause structure and language change, 140–169. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kroch, Anthony & Anne Taylor. 2000. Verb-object order in Early Middle English. In Susan Pintzuk, George Tsoulas & Anthony Warner (eds.), Diachronic syntax: Models and mechanisms, 132–163. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Winfred P. 1972. Proto-Germanic syntax. In Frans van Coetsem & Herbert Kufner (eds.), Toward a grammar of Proto-Germanic, 239–268. Tübingen: Niemeyer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lenerz, Jürgen. 1984. Syntaktischer Wandel und Grammatiktheorie: Eine Untersuchung an Beispielen aus der Sprachgeschichte des Deutschen. Tübingen: Niemeyer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Light, Caitlin. 2015. Expletive there in West Germanic. In Theresa Biberauer & George Walkden (eds.), Syntax over time: Lexical, morphological and information-structural interactions, 17–35. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Luraghi, Silvia. 1990. Old Hittite sentence structure. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Masser, Achim. 1994. Die lateinisch-althochdeutsche Tatianbilingue Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen Cod. 56. Göttingen: Vandenhœck & Ruprecht. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paul, Hermann. 2007. Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik, 25th edn. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Pintzuk, Susan & Anthony Kroch. 1989. The rightward movement of complements and adjuncts in the Old English of Beowulf. Language Variation and Change 11. 115–143. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
R Development Core Team. 2013. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna. [URL].Google Scholar
Ratkus, Artūras. 2011. The adjective inflection in Gothic and early Germanic: Structure and development. Cambridge: Cambridge University dissertation.Google Scholar
Robinson, Orrin. 1997. Clause subordination and verb placement in the Old High German Isidor translation. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Salvi, Giampaolo. 2011. A formal approach to Latin word order. In Renato Oniga, Rossella Iovino & Guiliana Giusti (eds.), Formal linguistics and the teaching of Latin: Theoretical and applied perspectives in comparative grammar, 23–50. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Sapp Christopher D. 2014. Extraposition in Middle and Early New High German. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 171. 129–156. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sapp, Christopher D. 2011a. The verbal complex in subordinate clauses from medieval to modern German. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2011b. The verbal complex in Old High German: Evidence for SOV. Interdisciplinary Journal of Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis 161. 63–99.Google Scholar
Schallert, Oliver. 2010. Als Deutsch noch nicht OV war: Althochdeutsch im Spannungsfeld zwischen OV und VO. In Arne Ziegler (ed.), Historische Textgrammatik und Historische Syntax des Deutschen: Traditionen, Innovationen, Perspektiven, vol. 11, 365–394. Berlin: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schäufele, Steven. 1991. Verb-medial clauses in Vedic: Some theoretical implications. In Hans Henrich Hock (ed.), Studies in Sanskrit syntax, 177–196. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.Google Scholar
Schlachter, Eva. 2012. Syntax und Informationsstruktur im Althochdeutschen: Untersuchungen am Beispiel der Isidor-Gruppe. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Schmid, Tanja & Ralf Vogel. 2004. Dialectal variation in German 3-verb clusters: A surface-oriented optimality theoretic account. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 71. 235–274. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Ann. 1994. The change from SOV to SVO in ancient Greek. Language Variation and Change 61. 1–37. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Ann & Susan Pintzuk. 2015. Verb order, object position, and information status in Old English. In Theresa Biberauer & George Walkden (eds.), Syntax over time: Lexical, morphological and information-structural interactions, 318–335. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tatian corpus of deviating examples (T-CODEX 2.0). [URL]. last accessed 25 August 2014.
Uriagereka, Juan. 2006. Towards a syntax of Proto-Basque. In Joseba Lakarra (ed.), Homage to Larry Trask, 949–968. University of the Basque Country. Google Scholar
Viti, Carlotta. 2015. Variation und Wandel in der Syntax der alten indogermanischen Sprachen. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Walkden, George. 2014a. Object position and heavy NP shift in Old Saxon and beyond. In Kristin Bech & Kristine M. Eide (eds.), Information structure and word order change in Germanic and Romance languages, 313–340. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2014b. Syntactic reconstruction and Proto-Germanic. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wallenberg, Joel C. 2015. Antisymmetry and heavy NP shift across Germanic. In Theresa Biberauer & George Walkden (eds.), Syntax over time: Lexical, morphological and information-structural interactions, 336–349. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Watkins, Calvert. 1976. Towards Proto-Indo-European syntax: Problems and pseudo-problems. In Stanford Steever, Carol Walker & Salikoko Mufwene (eds.), Papers from the parasession on diachronic syntax, April 22, 1976, 305–326. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Weerman, Fred. 1993. The diachronic consequences of first and second language acquisition: The change from OV to VO. Linguistics 311. 903–931. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weiß, Helmut. Manuscript. Die rechte Satzperipherie im Althochdeutschen: Zur Verbstellung in dass-Sätzen. Google Scholar
West, Martin. 2011. Old Avestan syntax and stylistics. Berlin: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wöllstein-Leisten, Angelika, Axel Heilmann, Peter Stepan & Sten Vikner. 1997. Deutsche Satzstruktur: Grundlagen der syntaktischen Analyse. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.Google Scholar
Wunder, Dieter. 1965. Der Nebensatz bei Otfrid: Untersuchungen zur Syntax des deutschen Nebensatzes. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Wurmbrand, Susi 2004. Syntactic vs. post-syntactic movement. In Sophie Burelle & Stanca Somesfalean (eds.), Proceedings of the 2003 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Linguistic Association (CLA), 284–295. Montreal: University of Quebec.Google Scholar
. 2006. Verb clusters, verb raising, and restructuring. In Martin Everaert & Henk van Riemsdijk (eds.), The Blackwell companion to syntax, vol. 51, 229–343. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zahn, Günther. 1991. Beobachtungen zur Ausklammerung und Nachfeldbesetzung in gesprochenem Deutsch. Erlangen: Palm und Enke.Google Scholar
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

STRUIK, TARA & GERT-JAN SCHOENMAKERS
2023. When information structure exploits syntax: The relation between the loss of VO and scrambling in Dutch. Journal of Linguistics 59:3 ► pp. 655 ff. DOI logo
Fuß, Eric
2022. Early German = Slavic?. Theoretical Linguistics 48:1-2 ► pp. 57 ff. DOI logo
Hock, Hans Henrich
2019. Latin influence on German word order?. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 33 ► pp. 183 ff. DOI logo
Schallert, Oliver
2019. Verbstellungsvariation bei Exklamativen aus diachroner Perspektive. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 141:4 ► pp. 477 ff. DOI logo
Baechler, Raffaela & Simon Pröll
2018. Loss and preservation of case in Germanic non-standard varieties. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 3:1 DOI logo
Somers, Katerina, Mary Allison, Matthew Boutilier & Robert Howell
2018. Syntactic Echoes Of Pronominal Cliticization And Grammaticalization: The Case Of Old High German First‐Person Plural ‐Mes. Transactions of the Philological Society 116:2 ► pp. 218 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 august 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.