Verb Movement: Evidence from Verb Subject Object Languages
Research Mentor(s)
Anne Lobeck
Description
In current syntactic theory tree diagrams do not account for VSO languages. Even though, there are many VSO languages around the world whose order the theory needs to account for. Languages such as Scottish Gaelic, Hawaiian, Irish, Welsh, Egyptian, Arabic, and others. An example of a VSO sentence from Scotts Gaelic; 1) ruaig an cat an cú chased the cat the dog “the cat chased the dog” Where the verb, ruaig (chased) precedes the subject. This presentation will show evidence for a complementizer phrase that will allow for the verb to move to the position in front of the subject, giving the correct VSO order. The complementizer phrase (CP) appears above the inflectional phrase (IP), which holds the tense in the sentence either with a tensed verb or features for verb to move and pick up. This allows for the main verb in the sentence to move from the verb phrase, to the I position to pick up the tense of the sentence and then move to the C position making the sentence in the correct word order – VSO.
Document Type
Event
Start Date
May 2022
End Date
May 2022
Location
Carver Gym (Bellingham, Wash.)
Department
CHSS - Linguistics
Genre/Form
student projects; posters
Type
Image
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Verb Movement: Evidence from Verb Subject Object Languages
Carver Gym (Bellingham, Wash.)
In current syntactic theory tree diagrams do not account for VSO languages. Even though, there are many VSO languages around the world whose order the theory needs to account for. Languages such as Scottish Gaelic, Hawaiian, Irish, Welsh, Egyptian, Arabic, and others. An example of a VSO sentence from Scotts Gaelic; 1) ruaig an cat an cú chased the cat the dog “the cat chased the dog” Where the verb, ruaig (chased) precedes the subject. This presentation will show evidence for a complementizer phrase that will allow for the verb to move to the position in front of the subject, giving the correct VSO order. The complementizer phrase (CP) appears above the inflectional phrase (IP), which holds the tense in the sentence either with a tensed verb or features for verb to move and pick up. This allows for the main verb in the sentence to move from the verb phrase, to the I position to pick up the tense of the sentence and then move to the C position making the sentence in the correct word order – VSO.