When the subject follows the object. On a curiosity in the syntax of personal pronouns in some German dialects

Abstract In this paper, I present new data from several German dialects concerning the order of pronominal subjects and objects. The data are taken from three sources (Wenker survey, Bavarian Linguistic Atlas, Syntax of Hessian Dialects) and cover a time span of nearly 150 years, thus providing a very robust empirical basis. Although the canonical order in all German varieties is subject before object and this serialization holds for pronominal as well as for non-pronominal arguments, a certain proportiom of reverse orders for pronouns is attested in all three data sources. That is, there are... Mehr ...