Re: V2 languages

On Fri, 28 May 1999, Nik Taylor wrote:

> I need some information on verb-second languages.  As I understand it,
> it's not literally the second word, but rather the second element, so
> that one would say "This book have I read".  My question is, does this
> apply with adjectives too?  Would "This old book have I read" fit in V2
> order?  Or what about with subordinate clauses, "The book that you gave
> me have I read"?
In V2 languages, the tensed verb follows the first *constituent* of
the clause - i.e. where a constituent is a string of words which
act together as a syntactic unit.  A constituent can be anything from
a single word to a long chain of words, so the verb can be anything
from the second to the last word in the clause, depending on the
length of the first constituent, and on whether there's anything
else in the clause.

Examples (with first constituent in brackets):

        [John] HAVE we seen
        [The man] HAVE we seen
        [The old man] HAVE we seen
        [The old man with the dirty fingernails] HAVE we seen
        [The old man with the dirty fingernails the colour of
                scotch tape] HAVE we seen
        etc.

Matt.