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Verb Second

SYNTAX: name for the phenomenon that, or the process by which, the verb in declarative root clauses ends up in second position. If a language has verb second as a characteristic property it is called a verb second language. EXAMPLE: the contrast between the Dutch (i)a and the English (i)b shows that Dutch, but not English, is a verb second language.


(i) a  Jan sla ik

       J hit I

    b  John I hit

Verb second is no longer considered a process, but is rather taken to be an epiphenomenon, the effect of the interaction of as yet ill-understood parameter-settings and principles.

LIT.

Weerman, F. (1989)