The Licensing of CP-recursion and its Relevance to the Germanic Verb-Second Phenomenon

One of the central predictions of this analysis is that v/2 should be limited to clauses in which the C position is empty at d-structure, as in matrix sentences and in a limited range of subordinate clauses. In German, Dutch and the mainland Scandinavian languages, this prediction is largely borne out, confirming the analysis; but in other Germanic languages the prediction fails. Thus, in Yiddish and Icelandic verb-second word order is acceptable in a wide range of subordinate clauses, as illustrated in (2) and (3) (Rögnvaldsson and Thráinsson 1990, Braun p.c.):