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In:Footprints of Phrase Structure: Studies in syntax in honour of Tim Stowell
Edited by María J. Arche, Jan-Wouter Zwart, Hamida Demirdache and Hagit Borer
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 288] 2025
► pp. 76–110

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Postsyntactic morphology and the syntax of verb clusters

 | University of Groningen
Published online: 2 October 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/la.288.05zwa
Abstract
This article starts from the observation that (past/anterior) tense in infinitival clauses in Dutch is expressed periphrastically. Interestingly, this also occurs with infinitives that undergo ‘restructuring’ by Wurmbrand’s (2001) criteria. It follows that a simple dichotomy into tenseless infinitives that undergo restructuring and tensed infinitives that do not is incorrect, and that a cartographic analysis where restructuring infinitives are mere VPs whereas nonrestructuring infinitives are TPs (or larger) cannot work. The paper derives the properties of the various types of infinitives in a more dynamic framework in which complex elements (such as verb clusters) may be derived in separate derivation layers, and proposes to analyze restructuring as a function of this process of derivation layering.
Article outline
  • 1.Nonfinite tense
  • 2.Tenselessness
  • 3.Postsyntactic morphology
  • 4.Tense in verb clusters
  • 5.Finiteness and tense
  • 6.Restructuring
  • 7.Restructuring in Dutch
  • 8.The absence of long passives in Dutch
  • 8.Restructuring and tense
  • 9.Future ‘tense’
  • 10.What is cluster formation?
  • 11.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (39)
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