Studies on basic word order, word order variation and word order change in Germanic (Habilitationschrift, Humboldt-Universitaet 2008)

In this habilitation, I explore different issues concerning basic word order and synchronic and diachronic variation in word order. It starts out with examining nature of variation in the head-complement parameter focussing on (synchronic) comparative investigations on word order in German and English. On the basis of the wide-held opinion (cf. Kemenade 1987) that English started out as an OV-language, I have extended these investigations with diachronic studies, since the development of English promised to yield interesting insights into the nature of this parameter. As it turns out, both English and German started out with mixed OV/VO orders (cf. Pintzuk 1999 for English and Hinterhölzl to appear b for German), raising new and interesting questions about the nature of the variation and about the factors responsible for the development of word order in the two languages. In accounting for word order variation within one language, it has proven very fruitful to consider the role of information structure. Since information structural categories in German and English typically are correlated with word order alternation (syntactic displacement) and alternation of the prosody, the study of the complex interaction between syntax, phonology and information structure represents a key issue in accounting for the pertinent word order changes in Germanic.