The Verb-second (V2) phenomenon is one of the central issues of modern linguistic theory. This volume examines V2 from a micro-perspective, comparing various languages and periods. At the heart of the work presented here lies the clear assumption that Verb-second is by no means a unitary… read more
Old English (OE) and Old French (OF) are often referred to as verb-second (V2) languages. While it is the case that the verb may appear in second clause position after a non-subject-initial element in both languages, they are dissimilar in a number of features. In this paper, we consider the… read more
In Old French, all clitic clusters containing objects observed the order ACC–DAT. During the 15th and 16th centuries this order was changed into DAT–ACC in cases where objects of the 1st and 2nd person were involved. This change took place rather abruptly. In this paper I will argue that increased… read more
Just as the Modern Germanic languages (with the exception of English) have a verb second structure (V2), Old French was a V2 language. In this paper I compare Old French and Modern Germanic and show that they share the basic configuration. I suggest that these languages all have obligatory verb… read more
Linguists have been drawn to the intriguing nature of clitics ever since the golden age of philology in the 19th century. In this paper we aim to provide a brief history of different approaches to clitics, from Wackernagel’s law to modern theories that link clitics to phases. We also present the… read more
In Old and Middle French it is possible to find Stylistic Fronting where both a head and a phrase have been fronted. I have examined SF constructions where the infinitive dire ‘say’ or faire ‘do’ are fronted, in particular the cases where they are preceded by their complement. In order to account… read more