Old English (OE) and Old French (OF) both display verb-second (V2) word order in main declarative clauses. Different models may account for V2: (a) the finite verb must move to a head in the CP field; (b) it must remain in the IP field; or (c) it moves to the left periphery only when the preceding XP is not a subject. While the IP-model should allow free embedded V2, the two others would either exclude completely or strongly limit the possibilty of having embedded V2. We select embedded that-clauses and analyse the word order with respect to the matrix verb: embedded V2 is possible in both OE and OF, although the availability of this structure is restricted. OE has very few occurrences of embedded V2, whereas OF seems to permit this construction more freely. We link this difference to the site of first Merge of complementizers in the two languages.

Both Old English and Old French are commonly described as V2 languages. We investigate the position of the postverbal subject based on a corpus of medieval texts with respect to syntax and information structure. Our main findings are that information structure plays a more important role in Old English than in Old French.

Résumé Selon Kayne (1976), la subordonnée en français contemporain standard contient toujours le complémenteur que sous COMP. Dans cet article nous nous proposons de situer la théorie de Kayne dans le cadre du CP éclaté de Rizzi (1997). Nous montrerons que la position dont il est question est Fin°. En comparant l’emploi du complémenteur en français contemporain à celui de l’ancien français, nous indiquerons deux différences fondamentales : le traitement des chaînes et la possibilité d’omettre le complémenteur. En français contemporain, seule la tête de la chaîne peut être prononcée, contrainte qui n’existe pas en ancien français. D’autre part, l’ancien français permet l’omission réelle du complémenteur sous Fin°, ce qui n’est pas permis en français contemporain standard.

In Old and Middle French it is possible to find Stylistic Fronting where both a head and a phrase have been fronted. I have examined SF constructions where the infinitive dire ‘say’ or faire ‘do’ are fronted, in particular the cases where they are preceded by their complement. In order to account for this construction, I propose that the elements are moved together by Remnant Movement. I also examine the structure of the vP, where the object or an adverb may precede the non-finite verb. This intermediary step of scrambling in the vP is necessary in order for these elements to be moved to the left periphery of the clause.

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