A Cartographic Approach to Verb Movement and Two Types of FinP V2 in German

Abstract

In this paper, two syntactic configurations are considered that involve V-to-C movement in present-day German: Verb Second in run-of-the-mill declarative clauses and Verb Second in non-assertive embedded contexts. Along the lines of the cartographic approach and on the basis of syntactic and semantic evidence, it is proposed that in both constructs, the finite verb targets neither Force° nor the head of any other projection hosting a moved constituent in its specifier, but, rather, that it moves into the lowest head in the extended CP layer, namely Fin°. As a result of this, (at least) two types of verb raising to Fin° are to be postulated in this language: one that is triggered by discourse/information structure (V21) and one that results from mechanical movement to C elicited by an otherwise lacking lexicalization of the relevant left-peripheral head (V22).