Language Change at the Interfaces

This paper investigates the correlation of information structure (givenness) and the extraposition of relative clauses from Early New High German (16th century) to early Modern German (19th century) via a corpus study of letters. It aims to determine whether relative clauses with a high proportion of new referents are more likely to be extraposed because new referents put more strain on the working memory and can therefore be better interpreted at a position where more memory capacities are avai