Abstract
One of the most prominent characteristics of the “post-Barriers” (Chomsky 1986) era is the assumption that the functional category C maximally projects. Within this framework the COMP system is thus taken to comprise two positions: SPEC,CP and HEAD,CP. A quick examination of cross-linguistic data, however, reveals a great deal of variation with regard to which COMP elements are overtly realized. Confining ourselves to subordinate clauses in the Germanic languages, we can distinguish at least 6 different subtypes:1
The idea behind this paper has its roots in the research project Untersuchungen zur Parametrisierung der Grammatik am Beispiel des Berndeutschen (“Investigation of the parametrization of grammar exemplified on Bemese” supported by the Swiss NF application number 11.-27694.89) and in the work on the book Issues in the Synax of Subordination: A Comparative Study of the Complementizer System in Germanic, Romance, and Semitic Languages with Special Reference to Bernese Swiss German (Penner & Bader, in prep.). I wish to express my gratitude to Thomas Bader for useful comments on the concept and for having supported me with valuable observations and to Hansmartin Zimmermann for providing me with the Neg raising data.
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Penner, Z. (1993). W-Morphology in the COMP System of Bernese Swiss German and the Licensing of Empty Operators in the Prefield Position. In: Abraham, W., Bayer, J. (eds) Dialektsyntax. Linguistische Berichte Sonderheft, vol 5. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-97032-9_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-97032-9_10
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