Verb placement in relative clauses

Abstract

The Scandinavian languages generally display V2 in main clauses (but see Bentzen 2014a, who discusses clauses introduced by maybe, which constitute an exception to this pattern). However, in embedded contexts, V2 is only available in certain restricted contexts, such as certain embedded that-clauses (see Bentzen 2014b). In most other embedded contexts, such as embedded wh-questions and relative clauses, V2 is not possible. In these types of clauses we see a division between the Mainland Scandinavian languages and Icelandic. Whereas Icelandic displays V-to-I verb movement in such clauses, Mainland Scandinavian typically has no verb movement at all. (See e.g. Holmberg and Platzack 1995 and Vikner 1995 for overview). This is illustrated with an Icelandic example from Angantýsson (2011:12) and the corresponding Norwegian example. As the examples show, in relative clauses, the finite verb precedes negation in Icelandic and follows it in Norwegian: (1) a. Það er ein Íslendingasaga sem ég hef ekki lesið. (Icelandic) there is one Icelandic saga that I have nor read b. Det er en islendingesaga som jeg ikke har lest. (Norwegian) there is one Icelandic saga that I not has read ‘There is an Icelandic saga that I haven’t read.’ However, within the last couple of decades, several people have pointed out that V-to-I movement appears to be optionally available also in certain dialects of Mainland Scandinavian (cf. among others Platzack and Holmberg 1989 and Bentzen 2003; for a more detailed discussion, see section 3). Moreover, Angantýsson (2001, 2011) has argued that V-to-I movement may be optional in certain embedded contexts in Icelandic. Thus, verb placement in embedded contexts was tested for relative clauses in the ScanDiaSyn survey. In Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish the position of the finite main verb relative to the adverb always (often in Danish), and for Norwegian also for the position of auxiliary have with respect to the adverb completely. Unfortunately, these types of clauses were not tested in Iceland and the Faroe Islands.