Abstract
Among the syntactic changes that can be observed in the transition from Old Norwegian to Modern Norwegian are the following word order changes: loss of OV order, object shift from a VP containing a verb (non-finite verb or any verb in a subordinate clause), preverbal preposition, and topicalization of a bare head. The fact that these changes all seemto occurat the same timeis not accidental. Old Norwegian was arguably a VO language, like Modern Norwegian, but unlike Modern Norwegian, OV order was also possible.It can be shown that it is possible to derive sentences with object shift with a verb in VP, sentences with preverbal prepositions, and with topicalized heads only from an OV structure. Therefore, when the OV order was no longer available, the other three structures could no longer be derived.
Highlights
Among the syntactic changes that can be observed in the transition from Old Norwegian to Modern Norwegian are the following word order changes: loss of OV order, object shift from a VP containing a verb, preverbal preposition, and topicalization of a bare head
There is an upper bound set by Universal Grammar – understood as the theory of possible grammars; no change may yield a result which is not a possible grammar (Lightfoot 1979, pg. 141)
The specification of a possible grammar includes the specification of structural and hierarchical relations within the sentence. Those relations are the preconditions of historical changes taking place in the grammar; a change from the stage La to a later stage Lb of the language L, besides being limited by the human language faculty (Universal Grammar), depends on the structural properties of La
Summary
Among the syntactic changes that can be observed in the transition from Old Norwegian to Modern Norwegian are the following word order changes: loss of OV order, object shift from a VP containing a verb (non-finite verb or any verb in a subordinate clause), preverbal preposition, and topicalization of a bare head. A word order change which took place at the transition from Old Norwegian to Early Modern Norwegian, presumably during the early 16th century (but like all other grammatical changes, this change did not take place at the same time in all parts of Norway), led with necessity to three other changes. Another shared pattern is a general head-complement order (VO), as in (1a) and (1d), where a non-finite verb precedes its complement.
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