The shape and size of defective domains: Non-finite clauses in Pennsylvania Dutch

Although Pennsylvania Dutch (PD) has retained many German(ic) syntactic traits, there are a number of recent developments in its representation of non-finite clauses, i.e., defective domains that warrant further investigation. Two particular changes stand out: First, over the course of the last 100–150 years, PD has “lost” its infinitival marker, replacing it with the complementizer fer, which appears in C. Second, PD has developed a defective clausal gerund, however, it currently lacks clausal gerunds. Both of these phenomena can be accounted for in a straightforward and unified manner: PD continues to exercise the general tendency of Germanic languages to not project Spec, TP as a final landing site for subjects. This state of affairs exemplifies important trends in HL syntax, namely, (1) that mental representations play a central role in determining the limits and boundaries of syntactic change and transfer and (2) Representational Economy in HL syntax should not only be viewed as a call for the reduction of the size of computational domains.