Preverbal subjects, information structure, and object clitic position in Old Occitan

Abstract

The position of object and adverbial clitics remains problematic in Old Occitan syntax (Wanner 2010). This paper analyzes clitic position specifically in affirmative main declaratives with overt preverbal subjects, in which clitics are either preverbal or postverbal with no apparent semantic distinction. Thus, the phrasesEn Constantiss’enanetandEn Constantis anet s’enare semantically equivalent, each meaning ‘Sir Constantine left’, whether the cliticss’en‘himself.from-there’ appear before or after the verbanet‘went’. Previous analyses have concluded that this variation is random (Mériz 1978) or due to regional or dialectal variation (Hinzelin 2007). Neither approach satisfactorily addresses the underlying grammar or the principles underlying the distribution of the variants. The present analysis draws on claims about the left periphery in medieval Romance (Benincà 2006) and reports empirical data from the troubadour biographies (vidasandrazos) and thevidaof Saint Douceline. Results from 470 subject–verb declaratives establish that the subject in subject–verb–clitic sequences is left-dislocated, albeit covertly so. This sequence is one of several instantiations of subject left dislocation in Old Occitan and usually signals topic shift.