Chapter 2. How free is the position of German object pronouns?

Abstract

Corpus studies show that weak object pronouns in German directly precede or follow the subject, depending on properties of the subject, including weight, animacy and thematic role. Whether the same factors also affect the acceptability of sentences with object pronouns was investigated in three magnitude-estimation experiments. The results show that both orders (object pronoun before/after subject) are highly acceptable, with some small acceptability differences depending on weight, animacy and thematic roles. Based on these results, the hypothesis is advanced that the position of weak object pronouns in German relative to the subject is an instance of free variation within the grammar but choosing a specific order during language production follows general production preferences and is thus not random.