Leiden University Student Repository

Westendorp, Maud (2014)

Optional verb second in Northern Norwegian wh-questions

Bachelor thesis | Taalwetenschap (BA)

Westergaard et al. (2005, 2012) have shown that some dialects of Norwegian, contrary to Standard Norwegian, may violate the Verb Second requirement in some or all types of wh-questions. Focussing on Northern Norwegian, I discuss the optionality of the Verb Second requirement in wh-questions with simplex wh-phrases in this dialect. Based on data from Norwegian informants, as well as previous literature on this dialect, an analysis of the optionality of Verb Second will be given. This analysis builds on Sportiche’s approach on clitic movement in Romance languages (1996). It is shown that in Northern Norwegian complex wh’s move like phrases, whilst simplex wh’s can move (long-distance) as phrases as well as heads, analogous to the movement of Romance clitics. As an alternative analysis, the possibility that Northern Norwegian simplex wh’s undergo phrasal movement but merge into C0, is also discussed on the basis of the head movement account by Matushansky (2006).

Norwegian

verb movement

Verb Second

wh-questions

clitic movement

head vs. phrasal movement

Author

Westendorp, Maud

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Taal en Cognitie

Supervisors

Cheng, L.L.

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en