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Part of
The Determinants of Diachronic Stability
Edited by Anne Breitbarth, Miriam Bouzouita, Lieven Danckaert and Melissa Farasyn
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 254] 2019
► pp. 157–190

Chapter 7
V1 clauses in Old Catalan

| Queens’ College/Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge

This paper explores verb initial clauses in Old Catalan, contributing to the debate surrounding Old Romance verb placement. Using data from El Llibre dels Feyts, a 13th century Catalan chronicle, it is established that analyses proposed for V1 clauses for other Old Romance languages do not generally hold for Old Catalan. Instead, V1 clauses from El Llibre dels Feyts behave like Modern Catalan V1 clauses, that is, like V1 clauses of an SVO language. V1 clauses are examined in relation to information structure and predicate types, and systematically compared to their Modern Catalan counterparts. Through this analysis it is established that the uses and structure of Catalan V1 clauses have remained stable through the centuries.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
  • 3.Old Catalan: A V2 language?
    • 3.1Lack of V-to-C movement in declarative clauses
    • 3.2Lack of Germanic-style inversion
    • 3.3The preverbal field is specialised for hosting subjects
    • 3.4Null subjects in main and embedded clauses
  • 4.V1 clauses: Types and frequency
    • 4.1V1 clauses preceded by e
    • 4.2Two particular cases: Verba dicendi and unaccusative verbs
      • 4.2.1Verba dicendi
      • 4.2.2Unaccusatives
    • 4.3Absolute V1 clauses
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 20 March 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.254.07puj
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