Double object order in historic German

A unified processing perspective with new data from pronominal constructions

Abstract

Modern Standard German double object constructions with two pronominal objects display an almost completely fixed order, in which the accusative object precedes the dative one. In contrast, in historic German, such double object constructions display variation between an unmarked order in which the accusative object precedes the dative object, and a marked one in which the dative precedes the accusative. In double object constructions in which both objects are instead full noun phrases, there is parallel word order variation between marked and unmarked orders in both historic German and modern Standard German. However, it has been previously proposed that these two cases of word order variation are determined by distinct factors, despite arising in a single double object construction. Going against this well-established view, we propose a uniform, processing-based account of pronominal and nominal double object constructions. This is evidenced by a novel empirical study of the former in the GerManC corpus. First, by assessing information uniformity, we show that use of the marked order is associated with a grammatical processing advantage in the sentences in which it is used compared with using the alternative, unmarked order in those same sentences. Second, we present empirical evidence that this processing advantage relates to mental accessibility through givenness, salience and animacy, and the position of the full verb.