Changing from OV to VO: More evidence from Old French

• Autores: Laurie Zaring
• Localización: Ianua. Revista Philologica Romanica, ISSN-e 1616-413X, Nº. 10, 2010, págs. 1-18
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The change in word order from OV in Latin to VO in Old French is generally thought to have occurred early in the history of the language; for example, Marchello-Nizia (1995) finds that VO order is essentially fixed beginning in the early 13th century. The present study extends Marchello-Nizia�s analysis by drawing data from two other texts and examining the order of objects with nonfinite as well as finite verb forms. We show that OV word order with nonfinite verbs is still readily attested in both texts even in the 13th century and that its loss represents a continuum of gradual change from finite to participial to infinitival verb forms, adding a crucial grammatical factor to our understanding of the change.