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In:Studies in Övdalian Morphology and Syntax: New research on a lesser-known Scandinavian language
Edited by Kristine Bentzen, Henrik Rosenkvist and Janne Bondi Johannessen †
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 221] 2015
► pp. 87–105

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Optional V-to-I movement 
in Övdalian

 | Buskerud and Vestfold University College
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 3.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 22 January 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/la.221.04gar
The paper examines causes of the ongoing loss of V-to-I movement in Övdalian, in the light of the parametric correlation between rich verbal agreement and verb movement to I (since Kosmeijer 1986). I show that the once obligatory V-to-I movement in Classical Övdalian has not only become optional, but also dispreferred in Traditional Övdalian, while at the same time the verbal inflection has been kept intact. Therefore, I conclude that there is no visible correlation between rich verbal agreement and V-to-I movement in Övdalian. Instead, I argue that the loss of V-to-I movement was caused by a high placement of negation that blurred evidence for verb movement.
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