Te-raising is clitic climbing
Open Access
- 23 November 2017
- journal article
- Published by John Benjamins Publishing Company in Linguistics in the Netherlands 1997
- Vol. 34, 127-141
- https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.34.09pot
Abstract
In contrast to finite verb clusters, non-finite verb clusters have thus far received little attention in the literature. In this paper, I present new data from a large-scale questionnaire study on variation in non-finite three-verb clusters in Dutch, investigating the position and presence of the infinitival marker te ‘to’. The results reveal that a group of Dutch speakers allows te to occur in a higher position than it should based on selection requirements. I propose that for these speakers te has the morphosyntactic status of a clitic, whereas for all other speakers te is a verbal prefix. I analyse Dutch verb clusters as cases of functional restructuring and te-raising as an instance of clitic climbing, a well-known phenomenon from other languages with restructuring, such as Italian.Keywords
This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
- Verb Clusters, Verb Raising, and RestructuringPublished by Wiley ,2017
- Understanding grammar at the community level requires a diachronic perspectiveNederlandse Taalkunde, 2017
- Clitic Positions and Restructuring in ItalianLinguistic Inquiry, 2004
- “Restructuring” and the Order of Aspectual and Root Modal HeadsPublished by Brill ,2001
- Syntaxis van het NederlandsPublished by Amsterdam University Press ,2000
- Issues in Italian SyntaxPublished by Walter de Gruyter GmbH ,1982