Tracing the Patterns of (Non-)splittability in Germanic. Structures, Methods, Comparison (DGfS 2026 Workshop)

Date: 24-Feb-2026 - 27-Feb-2026
Location: Trier, Germany
Contact: Nicholas Catasso
Contact Email: [email protected]

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Morphology; Sociolinguistics; Syntax
Language Family(ies): Germanic

Submission Deadline: 15-Aug-2025

All Germanic languages exhibit patterns in which two components of a constituent interpreted as a semantic complex surface in a discontinuous syntactic configuration. Such constructions include, e.g., so-called what-for-phrases (1), locative adverbs featuring indexical particles (2), prepositional adverbs (3) and aggressively non-D-linked expressions (4):

(1) Norwegian
[Hva](i) har du lest [t(i) for slags bok]?
what have you read for sorts book
‘What kind of book did you read?’
(Leu 2008: 5)

(2) Afrikaans
[Waar](i) is jy op pad [t(i) heen]?
where are you on way LOC.PRT
‘Where are you going?’
(Donaldson 1993: 323)

(3) German
[Da](i) richten sich die Leute [t(i)nach].
there follow REFL the people to
‘People act accordingly.’
(Negele 2012: 79)

(4) Dutch
[Waarom](i) heb je [t(i) in godsnaam] toch Obama geïnterviewd?
why have you in God’s.name PRT Obama interviewed
‘Why on Earth did you interview Obama?’
(Corver 2021: 166)

These patterns, which are all optional and compete with their non-split counterpart, are interesting for a number of reasons. Syntactically, they appear to challenge the Left-Branch Condition (Ross 1967) – the most leftward element should not be extractable from the original NP – and, possibly, the Subjacency Condition (Chomsky 1973) unless explained away via explicit formal postulations (Corver 1990).

As for the environmental conditions governing their use, the alternation between these constructions and their non-split competitors in individual languages is subject to strong dialectal, sociolinguistic and interspeaker variation (e.g., Donaldson 1993: 223, Fleischer 2002, Leu 2008: 16, Negele 2012). However, the specific (conspiracies of) conditions that license the split patterns are yet to be fully and satisfactorily unveiled. Furthermore, many aspects concerning their diachronic development are still lacking in-depth investigation (Cirkel & Freywald 2021).

The aim of this workshop is to bring together linguists from different areas of morphosyntax and of different theoretical persuasions who are interested in exploring the factors influencing the realization of these patterns both in synchrony and in diachrony.

The workshop will focus on ‒ but will not be limited to ‒ the following research questions:
(i) What factors favor or hinder split vs. non-split patterns?;
(ii) What structural correlates of (individual) Germanic (languages) license the use of the discontinuous patterns and why is this optional splittability excluded in other language groups (e.g. in Romance)?;
(iii) Which empirical methods are most effective for investigating such patterns?;
(iv) Are such alternations evidence for genuine syntactic optionality (cf. Biberauer & Richards 2006)?

This meeting is open to contributions on all Germanic languages and varieties, as well as to all theoretical and methodological approaches.

Submission:
Please submit your abstract in both .doc and .PDF formats to [email protected] and/or [email protected]. Abstracts should not exceed one page, including references (DIN A4, 2.5 cm margins, 12 pt font). Each talk will be allotted 20 minutes + 10 minutes for discussion. Be sure to include the names and affiliations of all authors either at the top of the abstract or in the body of your submission email.
Please note that speakers are only permitted to present in one workshop at this conference. They may, however, be listed as co-authors on talks in other workshops.
The language of the workshop is English.
Each author may submit one single-authored and one co-authored abstract at most.

Important Dates:
- Deadline for abstract submission: August 15, 2025
- Notification of acceptance: no later than September 5, 2025
- Conference dates: February 24-27, 2026

Organisation and Contacts:
Nicholas Catasso, Bergische Universität Wuppertal
([email protected])
Nathalie Fromm, Bergische Universität Wuppertal
([email protected])
Benjamin L. Sluckin, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
([email protected])

Selected References:
Biberauer, Th. & M. Richards. 2006. True optionality: When the grammar doesn’t mind. In C. Boeckx (ed.), Minimalist essays, 35–67. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Chomsky, N. 1973. Conditions on Transformations. In S. Anderson & P. Kiparsky (eds.). A Festschrift for Morris Halle, 232–286. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Cirkel, P. & U. Freywald 2021. In Stadt und Stadt: Berlin und Ruhrgebiet im Vergleich. Linguistik Online 110/5: 193–227.
Corver, N. 1990. The Syntax of Left Branch Extractions, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Tilburg.
Corver, N. 2021. Why in Dutch? On why-stripping and high and low adverbials. In G. Soare (ed.), Why is ‘why’ unique? Its syntactic and semantic properties, 151–193. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Donaldson, B. C. 1993. A grammar of Afrikaans. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Fleischer, J. 2002. Die Syntax von Pronominaladverbien in den Dialekten des Deutschen: Eine Untersuchung zu Preposition Stranding und verwandten Phänomenen. Stuttgart: Steiner.
Höder, S. 2014. Constructing diasystems. Grammatical organisation in bilingual groups. In T. A. Åfarli & B. Mæhlum (eds.), The sociolinguistics of grammar (Studies in Language Companion Series 154), 137–152. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Leu, Th. 2008. What for internally. Syntax 11/1: 1–25.
Negele, M. 2012. Varianten der Pronominaladverbien im Neuhochdeutschen: Grammatische und soziolinguistische Untersuchungen. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Ross, J. 1967. Constraints on variables in syntax. Doctoral dissertation, MIT.