Beschreibung:
The study engages with the theory that verb position change in most Romance languages is traceable to the (near total) loss of what was originally a strict, universally valid >verb-comes-second< rule. This assumption is refuted here on the basis (a) of a critical discussion of traditional and generative studies on the question and (b) of an empirical study by the author based on a diachronic comparison of Bible translations. These investigations reveal that, contrary to previous suppositions, the Romance languages (with the exception of Rhaeto-Romanic) should invariably be analyzed as non-"verb-second" languages.
Die Studie setzt sich mit der These auseinander, daß der Verbstellungswandel in den meisten romanischen Sprachen auf den (weitgehenden) Verlust einer ursprünglich generell gültigen strengen Verb-Zweit-Stellungseigenschaft zurückzuführen ist. Eine kritische Diskussion traditioneller und generativer Untersuchungen sowie eine eigene empirische Untersuchung, die auf dem diachronischen Vergleich von Bibelübersetzungen basiert, widerlegen diese Annahme und zeigen, daß stattdessen die romanischen Sprachen - mit Ausnahme des Rätoromanischen - stets als Nicht-Verb-Zweit-Sprachen zu analysieren sind.. - The study engages with the theory that verb position change in most Romance languages is traceable to the (near total) loss of what was originally a strict, universally valid >verb-comes-second< rule. This assumption is refuted here on the basis (a) of a critical discussion of traditional and generative studies on the question and (b) of an empirical study by the author based on a diachronic comparison of Bible translations. These investigations reveal that, contrary to previous suppositions, the Romance languages (with the exception of Rhaeto-Romanic) should invariably be analyzed as non-"verb-second" languages.