V2 loss in Old French and Old Occitan
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Barbara Vance
Abstract
Traditional analyses of Old French as a verb-second (V2) language (e.g. Thurneysen 1892; Adams 1987) have recently been challenged by Kaiser 2002 and related work. At issue is the treatment of situations in which a particular initial non-subject element can participate in either V2 or V3 order. The current paper focuses on sentences in which the initial element is a fronted subordinate clause. Using a diachronic data base of 13th-century prose, we argue first for a revision in the criteria for identifying V3 that reduces the number of such examples considerably. We then show that the rate of V2 vs. V3 with fronted clauses varies with respect to date, genre, and fronted-clause type in ways that suggest a syntactic change in progress rather than the absence of V2 effects. Our conclusion is supported by a parallel study of a closely related (but minimally syntactically different) language, Old Occitan.
Abstract
Traditional analyses of Old French as a verb-second (V2) language (e.g. Thurneysen 1892; Adams 1987) have recently been challenged by Kaiser 2002 and related work. At issue is the treatment of situations in which a particular initial non-subject element can participate in either V2 or V3 order. The current paper focuses on sentences in which the initial element is a fronted subordinate clause. Using a diachronic data base of 13th-century prose, we argue first for a revision in the criteria for identifying V3 that reduces the number of such examples considerably. We then show that the rate of V2 vs. V3 with fronted clauses varies with respect to date, genre, and fronted-clause type in ways that suggest a syntactic change in progress rather than the absence of V2 effects. Our conclusion is supported by a parallel study of a closely related (but minimally syntactically different) language, Old Occitan.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements ix
- List of contributors xi
- Editors’ introduction 1
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Part I. Phonetics/Phonology
- Correcting the record on Dominican [s]-hypercorrection 15
- V-to-V assimilation in trisyllabic words in French 25
- The production and provenance of palatal nasals in Portuguese and Spanish 43
- Lenition and phonemic contrast in Majorcan Catalan 63
- Alveolar laterals in Majorcan Spanish 81
- Units of speech production in Italian 95
- Pitch polarity in Palenquero 111
- Word-minimality and sound change in Hispano-Romance 129
- Multiple opacity in Eastern Regional French 153
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Part II. Syntax
- Syntactic variation in Colombian Spanish 169
- Anaphoricity, logophoricity and intensification 187
- More on the clitic combination puzzle 203
- The Spanish dative alternation revisited 217
- Romanian genderless pronouns and parasitic gaps 231
- To agree or not to agree 249
- Variation in subject expression in Western Romance 267
- A phase-based analysis of Old French genitive constructions 285
- V2 loss in Old French and Old Occitan 301
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Part III. Morphology, and interfaces
- The loss and survival of inflectional morphology 323
- Allomorphy in pre-clitic imperatives in Formenteran Catalan 337
- Preverbal vowels in wh-questions and declarative sentences in Northern Italian Piacentine dialects 353
- Pitch accent, focus, and the interpretation of non- wh exclamatives in French 369
- Detours along the perfect path 387
- Grammaticalization of commencer/cominciare “to begin” in French and Italian 405
- Index of subjects, terms and languages 423
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements ix
- List of contributors xi
- Editors’ introduction 1
-
Part I. Phonetics/Phonology
- Correcting the record on Dominican [s]-hypercorrection 15
- V-to-V assimilation in trisyllabic words in French 25
- The production and provenance of palatal nasals in Portuguese and Spanish 43
- Lenition and phonemic contrast in Majorcan Catalan 63
- Alveolar laterals in Majorcan Spanish 81
- Units of speech production in Italian 95
- Pitch polarity in Palenquero 111
- Word-minimality and sound change in Hispano-Romance 129
- Multiple opacity in Eastern Regional French 153
-
Part II. Syntax
- Syntactic variation in Colombian Spanish 169
- Anaphoricity, logophoricity and intensification 187
- More on the clitic combination puzzle 203
- The Spanish dative alternation revisited 217
- Romanian genderless pronouns and parasitic gaps 231
- To agree or not to agree 249
- Variation in subject expression in Western Romance 267
- A phase-based analysis of Old French genitive constructions 285
- V2 loss in Old French and Old Occitan 301
-
Part III. Morphology, and interfaces
- The loss and survival of inflectional morphology 323
- Allomorphy in pre-clitic imperatives in Formenteran Catalan 337
- Preverbal vowels in wh-questions and declarative sentences in Northern Italian Piacentine dialects 353
- Pitch accent, focus, and the interpretation of non- wh exclamatives in French 369
- Detours along the perfect path 387
- Grammaticalization of commencer/cominciare “to begin” in French and Italian 405
- Index of subjects, terms and languages 423
