2-1-3 orders in Dutch verb clusters

Abstract A generalization that has emerged in the literature on verb clusters in West Germanic languages is that so-called 2-1-3 orders (where verb n selects verb n +1) are absent with core clustering verbs. In this paper we show that Dutch permits 2-1-3 order as an optional variant of the more widely acknowledged 1-2-3 order. The 2-1-3 order is subject to a range of restrictions involving the lexical items in the cluster, the morphological form of these items, whether other elements intervene, and where focus is placed. We argue that these restrictions are best understood if the 2-1-3 order is derived from an underlying 1-2-3 cluster through a post-syntactic inversion rule. This rule shares various properties with other inversion rules but cannot be reduced entirely to a familiar rule type.