Abstract: The goal of this chapter is to give an account of the distribution of left-periphery elements in Old French. In addition to the familiar FinP and TopicP categories that are traditionally taken to have existed in the pre-verbal area in V2 languages, I argue that the Old French CP consisted of a rich array of additional topic positions. Three positions are identified: one for Stylistically Fronted elements, one for left dislocated elements, and one for hanging topics. The decomposition of the CP layer in Old French gives a rationale for the possibility of V3 and V4 order in that language. Stylistic Fronting is argued to be available throughout the Old French period (both the Early and the Late period), making Old French consistently a non-Generalized V2 language (contra Labelle (Lingua 117:289–316, 2007) and several others). Finally, it is shown that left dislocated and hanging topics appeared much earlier than traditionally thought in the literature.
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-08-29
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 68
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