Verb third and the C-domain: within and outside Contemporary Urban Vernacular Swedish

Abstract In recent decades, several Germanic languages have seen the rise of new social dialects in multilingual urban areas. Syntactically, these contemporary urban vernaculars (CUVs) are characterised by allowing a new set of exceptions to the verb second (V2) pattern, as a clause initial constituent may be followed by subject-verb and not verb-subject word order. Here we present an empirical investigation, based on ethnographic material, of word order variation of V2 and V3 in CUV Swedish, showing that V3, compared to non-subject initial V2, is prevalent and clearly the preferred word order in spontaneous speech. We also provide a new formal account of the C-domain of CUV Swedish with obvious relevance for other Germanic varieties, CUVs and non-CUVs. The structural difference between V2 and V3 does not depend on different positions of the finite verb, nor on a different number of projections in the C-domain. Instead, V3 varies with V2 if not just one but two constituents may move across the Fin head from within TP. This proposal is supported by the finding that arguments, and not just adjuncts, may occupy the initial position of V3 sentences.