A usage-based typology of Dutch and German IPP verbs

Abstract

The auxiliaries of the perfect canonically select a past participle (PSP) in the West-Germanic languages. In Dutch and German, however, some verbs take the infinitival form instead. The phenomenon is known as "Infinitivus Pro Participio" (IPP). This paper identifies the verbs which – obligatorily or optionally – take the IPP form in Dutch and German, and it proposes a new typology of those verbs. It builds on a number of existing lists and classifications, but it is more firmly based on actual language data, as found in treebanks and on the Web. Making use of those data, it is shown why the new typology is more comprehensive and accurate than the existing classifications.