Thematic Asymmetries Do Matter! A Corpus Study of German Word Order

• DOI: 10.1017/s147054271400021x
• Publication Date: 2015-03-30T15:02:52Z
• Authors: Elisabeth Verhoeven
• Keywords: Animacy; Dative case; Word order; Argument (complex analysis); Realization (probability); Causative

This article addresses the question of whether influence thematic roles (in particular, experiencers and patients) on word order is an epiphenomenal effect other factors (such as information structure animacy). For this purpose, I have investigated argument realization with different verb classes, including canonical verbs either agentive or nonagentive experiencer-object varying case marking (dative accusative), in a large corpus written German. The obtained results indicate that experiencer-first at least to some extent triggered by factors, particular animacy. However, after subtracting resulting from these impact properties remains, therefore it necessary explain whole range data. *