Noncanonical V3 and Resumption in Kiezdeutsch

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter presents an investigation of V2 violations in the German contact variety Kiezdeutsch, making comparison with spoken and written Standard German (SG). We undertake a corpus study analyzing the distribution of V3-inducing resumption strategies otherwise unproblematic in SG: adverbial resumption, Left Dislocation, and Hanging Topic Left Dislocation. Unlike for SG, little is known about resumption strategies in Kiezdeutsch, yet we find similar behavior for spoken SG and Kiezdeutsch. We attempt to reconcile such V3 with a well-known noncanonical V3 pattern in Kiezdeutsch following the order Frame Setter > SubjectTOPIC> finite verb. We employ the framework proposed by Sam Wolfe in which strict-V2 systems have high locus of V2 in Force allowing V2 violations involving resumption and, for some languages, initial Frame Setters but not other violations. We suggest that microvariation in and between Kiezdeutsch and SG results from lexicalization of Frame Setters above ForceP in Kiezdeutsch and below it in SG.