David Diem

Research

Hello and Hoi, I am a PhD student at the University of Konstanz's Linguistics Department in Konstanz, Germany. My research is about the syntax of Alemannic, and I'm currently writing my PhD dissertation on various doubling phenomena in Alemannic. I argue that the syntax and the PF interface give rise to spelled out low copies, where other languages would have them deleted.

 

Peer-reviewed [publications and conference contributions]:

Verb-first under Evaluatives and Psych Verbs in Alemannic German

I show some understudied Verb-first data of (Swiss) Alemannic German: "I finds schö sinder choo." (I find it nice have.AUX.2sg you come.PTCP). I first show that these are in fact bi-clausal structures, leaving no choice but to analyze the second part as Verb-first. I then aim to derive this word order via established parametric variation of what could be called incomplete Verb-second, namely, V-to-C movement without an EPP requirement on C, drawing on Roberts (2005).

  • KLC 1 (Handout coming soon)

Constrained by FOFC: a shift back to head-finality in Alemannic verb clusters

Molly Rolf and I argue for a shift from head-initial verb clusters ("dass I han-1 wella-2 goo-3") to head-final ones ("dass I goo-3 wella-2 han-1"). Of two logically possible routes, this, we argue, goes via 132 ("han-1 goo-3 wella-2"), and not via *231 ("wella-2 goo-3 han-1"), which is a piece of Alemannic evidence for the FOFC.

Alemannic Verb Doubling as realized lower copies of V

I argue for a head movement + copy analysis of Verb Doubling ("ga schaffa"), and simultaneously for a head-initial analysis of the verbal domain in Alemannic.

Alemannic R-Pronoun Doubling from PP and DP (with Colin Davis)

Colin Davis and I argue that so-called R-pronouns ("da") undergo a double spellout in Alemannic when extracted from PP ("do deför") and possibly DP ("dode"). Our analysis also serves as a basis for a unified explanation of North German and German variants of this construction ("da … für").