The temporal interpretation of West Flemish non-inverted V3

Abstract

This chapter compares the temporal interpretation of the initial adjuncts in a regular V2 pattern, in which the finite verb has inverted with the subject, and in the West Flemish V3 patterns in which an adjunct precedes a non-inverted V2 pattern. In the periphrastic tenses, a difference in interpretation emerges. In the regular V2 pattern, an initial time adjunct modifies either Reference Time or Event Time of the associated clause. In the non-inverted V3 pattern, the initial temporal clause can only modify matrix Reference Time. This restriction is shown to follow from the analysis elaborated in Haegeman and Greco (2018a,b) combined with a split Tense proposal in which Reference time and Event time are located on distinct functional heads.