Grammaticalisation within the IP-domain

This paper will argue that grammaticalisation within the IP domain is responsible for the change in word order from Old to Modern Romance. Stylistic fronting, postverbal clitics, and other verb-third orders do not seem to be related at first sight. However, on closer investigation it seems as if all these phenomena can be brought together by the availability of an additional functional category in the IP domain that was involved in information structure. This paper will argue that stylistically fronted elements and the verb in postverbal clitic constructions target this additional functional category and thus change the meaning of the sentence. In the course of time, grammaticalisation (in the view of Roberts & Roussou 2003) reduced the availability of this functional category and therefore stylistic fronting and postverbal clitics are not an option in Modern Romance anymore.