The position of subject and finite verb in American Danish sentences with a fronted element

Karoline Kühl, Jan Heegård Petersen

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9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The paper investigates the placement of subject and finite verb in topicalized, i.e. non-subject initial declarative main clauses in North American Danish. European Danish adheres to the V2-rule and thus requires inversion, while North American Danish allows for non-inversion, i.e. [X]SV word order. Based on a sample of approx. 1700 tokens of topicalized declarative clauses produced by 64 speakers, we observe a general stability of V2 in North American Danish. In order to explain the instances of non-V2, we employ both linguistic and sociolinguistic factors.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Language Contact
Volume12
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)413-440
Number of pages28
ISSN1877-4091
Publication statusPublished - 2018

Keywords

  • Faculty of Humanities
  • language contact
  • Danish language
  • migration
  • North American Danish
  • syntax
  • Danish Voices in the America

    Karoline Kühl (Participant)

    1 Jul 201431 Aug 2018

    Activity: Other activity typesOther (prizes, external teaching and other activities) - Other

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