More is Going on Upstairs than Downstairs: Embedded Root Phenomena in West Frisian

Abstract

In this paper, (West) Frisian limited embedded V2-constructions introduced by the lexical complementizer dat (ECV2s) are discussed. It is argued that there is no evidence for the claim in the literature that conditions on extraction license structural embedding of CP-recursion in this language. It is shown that ECV2s in Frisian have generally the properties of root CPs and that there is no reason to analyze such constructions differently from structural roots. As a consequence, the approach defended here treats ECV2s and their matrix clauses as a combination of independent expressions, i.e., as expressions having their own illocutionary role. This accounts for restrictions on the distribution of embedded V2. Finally, it is demonstrated along the lines of Hoeksema and Napoli (1993) that ECV2s in Frisian are juxtaposed with their matrix clauses, i.e. they should be distinguished as cases of parataxis from 'normal' coordination.