Processing Verb Second at the Interface

A controversial topic in syntactic research since the 1970's has been what is known as embedded root phenomena (Hooper & Thompson 1973). As the name suggests, these are structures characteristic of main clauses, occurring in embedded contexts. One such phenomenon is Mainland Scandinavian embedded Verb Second. It has been claimed that this is licensed by the foregrounding, or main point status, of the embedded proposition (Julien 2009, Wiklund et al. 2009, Heycock et al. 2010). Although generally supported, this hypothesis remains controversial. This is partially due to the difficulty in quantifying over the notion of 'foregrounding', given that the very same embedded clause may be either backgrounded or foregrounded, depending on what appears to be a complex interaction of linguistic and extralinguistic factors. Hence, the present study analyses how the interaction of the discourse-pragmatics and the lexical semantics of the matrix predicate effects the acceptability of embedded V2 for native speakers of Swedish. In particular, I explore two hypotheses. First, the view mentioned above, that assertion is directly encoded in the syntax. Second, I explore the alternative view, that V2 may be an (optional) pragmatic ambiguity resolution-strategy, for distinguishing between main clause and embedded clause foregrounding. I present a tentative conclusion, and discuss implications for the semantics-pragmatics interface, and for syntactic processing, particularly with regards to morpho-syntactic alternations.
Heycock, Caroline, Antonella Sorace, and Zakaris Svabo Hansen (2010). V-to-I and V2 in subordinate clauses: an investigation of Faroese in relation to Icelandic and Danish. Journal of comparative Germanic Linguistics, 13: 61-97.
Hooper, Joan and Sandra Thompson (1973). On the applicability of root transformations. Linguistic Inquiry, 4, 4: 465-497.
Julien, Marit (2009). Embedded clauses with main clause word order in Mainland Scandinavian. Published on LingBuzz: URL: http://ling.auf.net/lingBuzz/000475.
Wiklund, Anna-Lena, Kristine Bentzen, Gunnar Hrafn Hrafnbjargarson, and Thorbjörg Hróarsdóttir (2009). On the distribution and illocution of V2 in Scandinavian that-clauses. Lingua, 119, 12: 1-25.