This chapter takes as its starting point the discussion in 9.2, which has shown that finite verbs can be found in basically two positions: the clause-final position in embedded clauses and the verb-first/second position in main clauses; the latter position is usually occupied by a complementizer such as datthat in embedded clauses.

Based on these two positions, the clause can be divided into three topological fields: the clause-initial position, the middle field, and the postverbal field. This is illustrated in Figure (2), repeated from Section 9.2. This chapter will focus on the placement of finite verbs. The core observation is that complementizers and finite verbs compete for the C-position; because embedded clauses are typically introduced by a complementizer, verb-second is usually restricted to main clauses.

2

Section 10.1 begins by introducing the verb-first/second rule, which places finite verbs in the C-position in main clauses. Section 10.2 continues with a complicating issue, namely that verbal collocations may exhibit different behavior under verb-second: there are verbal, compound-like collocations that undergo verb-second as a whole, collocations that are split under verb-second, and collocations that resist verb-second altogether. In (3), we illustrate this for N+V collocations, but copious similar examples can be found with e.g. particle verbs. We will discuss a number of properties that distinguish the three types of collocation.

Section 10.3 concludes with a discussion of verb-first/second in a limited set of supposedly embedded adverbial clauses. Prototypical cases are conditional adverbial clauses such as (4b), which alternate with the regular embedded clause introduced by the complementizer-like element alsif, as in (4a).