Loss of laten-support in embedded infinitivals in fifteenth-century Low Saxon

Abstract

This chapter is a theory-informed quantitative corpus study of infinitival fronting in a type of Infinitival V2 construction found in Old-Frisian and Middle-Dutch. The quantitative investigation evidences that infinitival fronting is the non-finite counterpart of the embedded subjunctive constructions. Formal I-language arguments are provided to demonstrate that the emergence of laten-support (the parallel of English do-support) and the decline of subjunctives are related to one parameter change in CP/TP. Before the fifteenth century, in Dutch, subjunctives and infinitives found in the relevant constructions move out of TP reaching C or Mod. In the second half of the fifteenth century, infinitives are being reanalysed as sitting in T. Hence, in infinitival fronting constructions, a separate verbal auxiliary form (laten) is created as a spellout of C. Although Laten-support is a transient phenomenon (‘failed change’), it has been the trigger of the reanalysis of auxiliaries as ordinary verbs in Dutch.