In syntax, verb-second (V2) word orderFor discussions of the V2 principle, see Borsley (1996:220f.), Ouhalla (1994:284ff.), Fromkin et al. (2000:341ff.), Adger (2003:329ff.), Carnie (2007:281f.). is a sentence structure in which the finite verb of a sentence or a clause is placed in the clause's second position, so that the verb is preceded by a single word or group of words (a single constituent).
Examples of V2 in English include (brackets indicating a single constituent): "Neither do I", "[Never in my life] have I seen such things" If English used V2 in all situations, then it would feature such sentences as: "*[In school] learned I about animals", "*[When she comes home from work] takes she a nap"
V2 word order is common in the Germanic languages and is also found in Northeast Caucasian Ingush, Uto-Aztecan O'odham, and fragmentarily across Rhaeto-Romance varieties and Finno-Ugric Estonian. Of the Germanic family, English is exceptional in having predominantly SVO order instead of V2, although there are vestiges of the V2 phenomenon.
Most Germanic languages do not normally use V2 order in embedded clauses, with a few exceptions. In particular, German, Dutch, and Afrikaans revert to VF (verb final) word order after a complementizer; Yiddish and Icelandic do, however, allow V2 in all declarative clauses: main, embedded, and subordinate. Kashmiri (an Indo-Aryan language) has V2 in 'declarative content clauses' but VF order in relative clauses.
Examples The example sentences in (1) from German illustrate the V2 principle, which allows any constituent to occupy the first position as long as the second position is occupied by the finite verb. Sentences (1a) through to (1d) have the finite verb spielten 'played' in second position, with various constituents occupying the first position: in (1a) the subject is in first position; in (1b) the object is; in (1c) the temporal modifier is in first position; and in (1d) the locative modifier is in first position.
In this example, English is more straightforward to compare to a North Germanic language: The same inversions occur regularly in the North Germanic languages, and in Dutch, for that matter, but English uses the North Germanic word order apart from having lost the inversions in common use. If the same example in Norwegian were translated to English with the inversions intact:
The caveat here (unlike in German) is that in languages without grammatical case, the form with the object first (2b) can only be used unambiguously when the object is unmistakable from the subject, such as if it is a personal pronoun, or as in this example, cannot meaningfully be the subject. In speech, such inversions are usually marked with emphasis: Apart from inversions that are obligatory in their grammatical context, such as "jeg tenker, derfor er jeg" (I think, therefore am I), when an inversion occurs for no other reason than emphasis, which is what opens up for possible ambiguity, the word in the emphasized position before the verb is usually also emphasized in speech.
Non-finite verbs and embedded clauses
Non-finite verbs The V2 principle regulates the position of finite verbs only; its influence on non-finite verbs (infinitives, participles, etc.) is indirect. Non-finite verbs in V2 languages appear in varying positions depending on the language. In German and Dutch, for instance, non-finite verbs appear after the object (if one is present) in clause final position in main clauses (OV order). Swedish and Icelandic, in contrast, position non-finite verbs after the finite verb but before the object (if one is present) (VO order). That is, V2 operates on only the finite verb.
Embedded clauses
(In the following examples, finite verb forms are in bold, non-finite verb forms are in italics and subjects are underlined.)
Germanic languages vary in the application of V2 order in embedded clauses. They fall into three groups.
Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Faroese
In these languages, the word order of clauses is generally fixed in two patterns of conventionally numbered positions.The examples are discussed in König and van der Auwera (1994) in the chapters devoted to each language. Both end with positions for (5) non-finite verb forms, (6) objects, and (7), adverbials.
In main clauses, the V2 constraint holds. The finite verb must be in position (2) and sentence adverbs in position (4). The latter include words with meanings such as 'not' and 'always'. The subject may be position (1), but when a topical expression occupies the position, the subject is in position (3).
In embedded clauses, the V2 constraint is absent. After the conjunction, the subject must immediately follow; it cannot be replaced by a topical expression. Thus, the first four positions are in the fixed order (1) conjunction, (2) subject, (3) sentence adverb, (4) finite verb.
The position of the sentence adverbs is important to those theorists who see them as marking the start of a large constituent within the clause. Thus the finite verb is seen as inside that constituent in embedded clauses, but outside that constituent in V2 main clauses.
Swedish {|cellspacing="8"
||main clauseembedded clause|||||Front— ||Finite verbConjunction||SubjectSubject||Sentence adverbSentence adverb||—Finite verb||Non-finite verbNon-finite verb||ObjectObject||AdverbialAdverbial |- ||main clause||a.||I dag||ville||Lotte||inte||||läsa||tidningen |- ||||||1||2||3||4||||5||6 |- ||||||today||wanted||Lotte||not||||read||the newspaper||||...
|colspan=7|'Lotte didn't want to read the paper today.' |- ||embedded clause||b.||||att||Lotte||inte||ville||koka||kaffe|| i dag |- ||||||||1||2||3||4||5||6||7 |- ||||||||that||Lotte||not||wanted||brew||coffee||today||...||
|colspan=7|'that Lotte didn't want to make coffee today'
Main clause Front Finite verb Subject Sentence adverb __ Non-finite verb Object Adverbial Embedded clause __ Conjunction Subject Sentence adverb Finite verb Non-finite verb Object Adverbial
Main clause (a) I dag ville Lotte inte läsa tidningen today wanted Lotte not read the newspaper "Lotte didn't want to read the paper today."
Embedded clause (b) att Lotte inte ville koka kaffe i dag that Lotte not wanted brew coffee today "that Lotte didn't want to make coffee today." Danish {|cellspacing="8"
||main clauseembedded clause|||||Front— ||Finite verbConjunction||SubjectSubject||Sentence adverbSentence adverb||—Finite verb||Non-finite verbNon-finite verb||ObjectObject||AdverbialAdverbial |- ||main clause||a.||Klaus||er||||ikke||||kommet |- ||||||1||2||||4||||5 |- ||||||Klaus||is|| ||not||||come||||||
|colspan=7|...'Klaus hasn't come.' |- ||embedded clause||b.||||når||Klaus||ikke||er||kommet |- ||||||||1||2||3||4||5 |- ||||||||when||Klaus||not||is||come||||
|colspan=7|...'when Klaus hasn't come'
So-called Perkerdansk is an example of a variety that does not follow the above.
Norwegian (with multiple adverbials and multiple non-finite forms, in two varieties of the language) {|cellspacing="8"
||mainembedded|||||Front— ||Finite verbConjunction||SubjectSubject||Sentence adverbSentence adverb||—Finite verb||Non-finite verbNon-finite verb||ObjectObject||AdverbialAdverbial
||main clause||a.||Den gangen||hadde||han||dessverre ikke||||villet sende||sakspapirene||før møtet.|| ||(Bokmål variety) |- ||||||1||2||3||4||||5||6||7|| |- ||||||that time||had||he||unfortunately not||||wanted to send||the documents||before the meeting||...
|colspan=7|'This time he had unfortunately not wanted to send the documents before the meeting.' |- ||embedded clause||b.||||av di||han||denne gongen diverre ikkje||hadde||vilja senda||sakspapira||føre møtet.|| ||(Nynorsk variety) |- ||||||||1||2||3||4||5||6||7 |- ||||||||because||he||this time unfortunately not||had||wanted to send||the documents||before the meeting||...
|colspan=7|'because this time he had unfortunately not wanted to send the documents before the meeting.'
Faroese Unlike continental Scandinavian languages, the sentence adverb may either precede or follow the finite verb in embedded clauses. A (3a) slot is inserted here for the following sentence adverb alternative. {|cellspacing="8" ||main clauseembedded clause|||||Front— ||Finite verbConjunction||SubjectSubject||Sentence adverbSentence adverb||—Finite verb||—Sentence adverb||Non-finite verbNon-finite verb||ObjectObject||AdverbialAdverbial|| |- ||main clause||a.||Her||man||fólk||ongantíð||||||hava fingið||fisk||fyrr |- ||||||1||2||3||4||||||5||6||7 |- ||||||here||must||people||never||||||have caught||fish||before||...
|colspan=7|'People have surely never caught fish here before.' |- ||embedded clause||b.||||hóast||fólk||ongantíð ||hevur|||| fingið|| fisk ||her |- ||||||||1||2||3||4||||5||6||7 |- ||||||||although||people||never||have||||caught||fish||here
||||c.||||hóast||fólk||||hevur||ongantíð||fingið|| fisk ||her |- ||||||||1||2||||4||(3a)||5||6||7 |- ||||||||although||people||||have||never||caught||fish||here||...
|colspan=7|'although people have never caught fish here'
German In main clauses, the V2 constraint holds. As with other Germanic languages, the finite verb must be in the second position. However, any non-finite forms must be in final position. The subject may be in the first position, but when a topical expression occupies the position, the subject follows the finite verb.
In embedded clauses, the V2 constraint does not hold. The finite verb form must be adjacent to any non-finite at the end of the clause.
German grammarians traditionally divide sentences into fields. Subordinate clauses preceding the main clause are said to be in the first field (Vorfeld), clauses following the main clause in the final field (Nachfeld). The central field (Mittelfeld) contains most or all of a clause, and is bounded by left bracket (Linke Satzklammer) and right bracket (Rechte Satzklammer) positions.
In main clauses, the initial element (subject or topical expression) is said to be located in the first field, the V2 finite verb form in the left bracket, and any non-finite verb forms in the right bracket.In embedded clauses, the conjunction is said to be located in the left bracket, and the verb forms in the right bracket. In German embedded clauses, a finite verb form follows any non-finite forms.
ExamplesThese and other examples are discussed in Fagan (2009) {|cellspacing="8"
||||| First field ||Left bracket||Central field||||||||Right bracket ||||||Final field |- | Main clause||a.||Er || hat |||dich ||gestern ||nicht |||| angerufen ||||||weil er dich nicht stören wollte. |- |||||he || has || you ||yesterday|| not || ||rung|| || ||
|colspan=10|... 'He didn't ring you yesterday because he didn't want to disturb you.' |- | || b. || Sobald er Zeit hat || wird || er || dich||||||anrufen |- | || || As soon as he has time || will ||he || you||||||ring ||||||
|colspan=10|...'When he has time he will ring you.' |- | Embedded clause||c.||||dass || er |||dich ||gestern ||nicht || angerufen hat |- |||||||that || he |||you ||yesterday ||not || rung has||||||
|colspan=10|...'that he didn't ring you yesterday'
Dutch and Afrikaans
V2 word order is used in main clauses; the finite verb must be in the second position. However, in subordinate clauses two word orders are possible for the verb clusters.
Main clauses:
DutchSimilar examples to these and others are discussed in Zwart (2011) {|cellspacing="8" ||||| First field ||Left bracket||Central field||||||||Right bracket ||||Final field |- | Main clause||a.||De Māori || hebben |||Nieuw-Zeeland |||||||| ontdekt |- |||||The Māori || have |||New Zealand |||||||| discovered||||
|colspan=7|...'The Māori have discovered New Zealand.' |- |||b.||Tussen ongeveer 1250 en 1300||ontdekten||de Māori |||Nieuw-Zeeland |||||||| |- |||||Between approximately 1250 and 1300||discovered||the Māori |||New Zealand |||||||||||
|colspan=7|...'Between about 1250 and 1300, the Māori discovered New Zealand.' |-