Generalising Functional Categories in LFG

This papers aims to present a lexicalist analysis of verb placement variation found in Germanic and Romance languages. Unlike derivational approaches to syntax, Lexical Functional Grammar accounts for different phrase structure positions of finite verbs by base-generating themin functional heads. The present study proposes a framework that allows us to formulate the conditions that license finite verbs to bear a functional category status. Crucial in the analysis is the encoding patterns of person features in lexical entries and their paradigmatic organisation of the lexicon. I further show that the current proposal can be supported by dialectal variation and diachronic change of verb placement.