Jacqueline van Kampen (Utrecht University)

Afrikaans directionality switch in ‘triple’ V-clusters with the auxiliary het

Afrikaans has, like Dutch, a rightward-branching V-cluster order 1-2-3 when V₁ is a modal/aspectual. This contrasts with German (and Frisian) where the same selection hierarchy requires a mirror order 3-2-1.

(1)      a. omdat jy hom moet1 leer2 swem3
b. weil du ihn schwimmen3 lehren2 musst1

The directionality switches when V₁ is the perfective auxiliary have. V₂ is in this case an IPP (Infinitivus-pro-participio) infinitive. In Afrikaans, het selects the V₂ to the left. In German, haben selects the V₂ to the right.

(2)        a. omdat jy hom leer2 swem3 het1
b. weil du ihn hast1 schwimmen3 lehren2

 
The focus of the paper will be on the Afrikaans V-cluster in (2a), as the 2-3-1 V-cluster order is a-typical in West-Germanic languages. I will first explain how V-cluster order differences arise from category formation in early child language by an acquisition procedure that is unaware of underlying structure followed by movements.

We will see how the 2-3-1 order came to fit the Afrikaans verbal system, considering that the acquisition procedure is confronted with reduced verbal morphology and with a peculiarity of Afrikaans modals. I will argue that sentence-final het has been reinterpreted as a morphological suffix on the main verb. This leads to a simplification of the V-cluster in (2a) into a binary V-cluster. No IPP V-cluster seems to be involved. A final question is how the acquisition procedure comes to choose morphology over syntax.