Germanic Infinitives:
Representation, Variation and Processing
Organized by the projects A17 and D2
of the SFB 471 "Variation and Evolution in the Lexicon"
Thursday, 30.9. - Saturday, 2.10. 2004 in Room G 307
The aim of this workshop is to bring together different perspectives on the
notoriously variable domain of Germanic infinitival constructions. One general
question to be asked is why it is exactly the infinitival syntax that is subject
to so much variation, both diachronically and across different languages and dialects,
whereas other properties of the grammar such as the V-second property appear to be
highly robust
Particular questions concern ...
- the lexical and syntactic trigger(s) for restructuring and clause union.
What are the precise properties of control verbs? Which clausal positioning can give rise to restructuring?
- the apparent optionality in word order: intraposition, extraposition, scrambling.
Are there differences in feature structure which have escaped our attention?
- the word order in the verbal cluster, verb raising and verb projection raising.
Which subsystems profit from word order changing operations?
- the role and status of the infinitival marker and its projection.
What is zu, te, to, ad etc.? Are they functional heads? What is their projection?
- the interaction with phonological phrasing.
How is coherence and non-coherence signaled prosodically?
- the scope of operators.
What are the scopal options in infinitival complements?
- the interaction with processing constraints.
What is the processing load of infinitival integration? Does clause union lead to a reduction in processing cost?
How can the grammar respond to insights from parsing?
Syntactic research has gained much ground in enhancing our understanding of Germanic
infinitival constructions, but there remain various lacunae which seem to resist a
deeper understanding so far. Since variations in the verbal complex seem to be a
trademark of Germanic head-final languages, new insights could also be expected from
comparisons with head-final languages that lack such variation.
Therefore, we would like to invite to participate not only syntacticians but also
specialists in semantics, phonology, dialectology, historical linguistics and natural
language processing to attend the conference.