Chapter 3. Word order and verb movement in Norwegian wh-questions

Abstract

This paper compares production and judgment data collected from several North Norwegian dialects, focusing on word order variation in wh-questions (V2 vs. non-V2). The findings show that non-V2 is widespread in questions with monosyllabic wh-elements and also fully accepted in questions with phrasal wh-elements in language contact areas. Furthermore, the acceptability of non-V2 correlates with the complexity of the wh-element, confirming previous accounts of the historical development. Age differences suggest that this development is currently being reversed. However, there is a major discrepancy between the production and judgement data, in that non-V2 is hardly ever produced with complex wh-elements. The findings are discussed in relation to what frequencies in diachronic data can(not) reveal about the grammar that produced historical texts.