Redefining the typology of V2 languages

Abstract

AbstractThis article proposes a new typology of the V2 property, integrating new data from a corpus of Medieval Romance texts with data from Rhaeto-Romance, Early Germanic and Modern Germanic. The proposed analysis is that all V2 systems have a V-movement and phrasal movement trigger on the lowest left-peripheral head, Fin, and that in a subclass of V2 languages Force also has these properties. It is argued that the restrictions on and variation in licensing verb-initial and verb-third clauses within Romance and Germanic V2 systems fall out from the Fin/Force distinction.