Nederlandse Taalkunde - Volume 14, Issue 3, 2009

This paper investigates the determinants of word order variation in presentative sentences such as Er zijn geen getto’s in Brussel “There are no ghettoes in Brussels”: in specific contexts, the adjunct can precede the subject in this sentence type (Er zijn in Brussel geen getto’s). I will demonstrate that a satisfactory account of this variation requires a multifactorial approach on the intersection between Cognitive Linguistics, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, no matter how difficult the cross-fertilization of these disciplines is. The data reveal that word order in presentative sentences is co-determined by general motivations (Informational Prominence and Heaviness) as well as by a local constraint (Adjunct Concreteness) motivated by the constructional function of the er-initial template.