|
This talk will discuss constituent order in Old Portuguese,
taking clitics as relevant indicators for different types of
syntactic structures. It will deal in particular with: (i)
OVS /OSV orders displaying a left-peripheral object (topic
vs. focus); (ii) SOV order derived by middle scrambling
(i.e. IP scrambling) and its eventual loss (but residual
persistence in contemporary Portuguese); (iii) the verb
second property, demonstrating that Old Portuguese was not a
V2 language.
The fact that the system
of clitic placement is in central respects unchanged from
Old Portuguese (OP) to contemporary European Portuguese (CEP)
will allow using CEP as a window into the syntax of OP. More
generally, a comparative approach between OP and CEP helps
to understand both the syntax of OP and certain “special”
syntactic constructions of CEP (e.g. certain features of
scrambling), with gains in both directions. |
