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An Information Structural Account of German Integrated Verb Second Clauses

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Research on Language and Computation

Abstract

In this paper, we present data of German integrated verb second clauses and verb final relative clauses that seem problematic for a compositional analysis. We show that although the compositional analysis of restrictive relative clauses in [Janssen, T. M. (1982). In: Groenendijk et al. (eds.) Formals Methods in the study of Language (pp. 237–276). Amsterdam: UvA publications] can be adapted, it cannot be sustained due to overgeneration and must be considered unintuitive in light of the paratactic syntactic analysis for the verb second clauses from Gärtner [(2001). Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics, 3, 97–141]. Hence we present a conceptually simpler analysis along the lines of [Endriss and Gärtner, 2005 In: F.-J. d’Avis (ed.) Deutsche Syntax: Empirie und Theorie, (pp. 195–220). Göteborg], which makes use of information structural properties of the involved clauses. We conclude with a brief discussion on the compositional status of such an approach.

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Correspondence to Christian Ebert.

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Ebert, C., Endriss, C. & Gärtner, HM. An Information Structural Account of German Integrated Verb Second Clauses. Res on Lang and Comput 5, 415–434 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11168-007-9038-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11168-007-9038-y

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