Morphosyntax of Verb Movement discusses the phenomenon of Dutch,
present in many Germanic languages, that the finite verb is fronted in
main clauses but not in embedded clauses. The theoretical framework
adopted is the so-called Minimalist Program of Chomsky (1995), the
latest developmental stage of generative grammar. Taking issue with
previous analyses, the author argues that phrase structure in Dutch is
uniformly head initial, and that the finite verb moves to different
positions in subject initial main clauses and in inversion
constructions.
The book contains lucid and detailed discussion of many theoretical
issues in connection with the Minimalist Program, such as the relation
between syntax and morphology, the nature of syntactic licensing, and
the structure of the functional domain. At the same time, it offers a
survey of the properties of Dutch syntax, a discussion of previous
analyses of Dutch syntax and a wealth of material from dialects of Dutch
and other Germanic languages.