Occitan, verb second and the Medieval Romance word order debate
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Sam Wolfe
Abstract
This study presents a discussion of the word order properties of Old Occitan, a Medieval Romance language which remains under-studied in comparison to many of its sister languages. I argue that it was a V2 system and in particular that the locus of the V2 property was a low left-peripheral head, namely Fin, yielding a descriptively ‘relaxed’ V2 grammar, with systematic V-to-Fin0 movement but widespread verb-third or more orders. Data are presented from a wide range of related properties that show that Occitan occupies a unique position within the wider typology of V2 languages.
Abstract
This study presents a discussion of the word order properties of Old Occitan, a Medieval Romance language which remains under-studied in comparison to many of its sister languages. I argue that it was a V2 system and in particular that the locus of the V2 property was a low left-peripheral head, namely Fin, yielding a descriptively ‘relaxed’ V2 grammar, with systematic V-to-Fin0 movement but widespread verb-third or more orders. Data are presented from a wide range of related properties that show that Occitan occupies a unique position within the wider typology of V2 languages.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- The spurious vs. dative problem 5
- Givenness and the difference between wh -fronted and wh -in-situ questions in Spanish 21
- The building blocks of Catalan ‘at least’ 41
- On ben in Trentino regional Italian 55
- Matrix complementisers and ‘speech act’ syntax 75
- External possession in Brazilian Portuguese 95
- Spanish adjectives are PathPs 111
- Additive and aspectual anche in Old Italian 127
- The acquisition of variation 143
- Exploring sociolinguistic discontinuity in a minority variety of French 159
- (And yet) another proposal for ser/estar 177
- Spanish estarse is not only agentive, but also inchoative 209
- From completely free to complete freedom 225
- Romanian dependent numerals as ratios 245
- For an overt movement analysis of comparison at a distance in French 259
- The role of L2 exposure in L3A 279
- European Portuguese focalizing SER ‘to be’ 297
- Occitan, verb second and the Medieval Romance word order debate 315
- Language index 337
- Subject index 339
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- The spurious vs. dative problem 5
- Givenness and the difference between wh -fronted and wh -in-situ questions in Spanish 21
- The building blocks of Catalan ‘at least’ 41
- On ben in Trentino regional Italian 55
- Matrix complementisers and ‘speech act’ syntax 75
- External possession in Brazilian Portuguese 95
- Spanish adjectives are PathPs 111
- Additive and aspectual anche in Old Italian 127
- The acquisition of variation 143
- Exploring sociolinguistic discontinuity in a minority variety of French 159
- (And yet) another proposal for ser/estar 177
- Spanish estarse is not only agentive, but also inchoative 209
- From completely free to complete freedom 225
- Romanian dependent numerals as ratios 245
- For an overt movement analysis of comparison at a distance in French 259
- The role of L2 exposure in L3A 279
- European Portuguese focalizing SER ‘to be’ 297
- Occitan, verb second and the Medieval Romance word order debate 315
- Language index 337
- Subject index 339
