Word order in Early Old Catalan

This article presents the first analysis of the word order of Early Old Catalan by examining four texts dating from the 10th and 11th centuries. While the texts vary in nature, they all fall within the legal register, and they are all deemed suitable for the study of syntax based on extra-linguistic criteria. Approaching the data from a generative and cartographic perspective, it is shown that (i) broadly speaking, Early Old Catalan patterns with contemporary Romance texts in exhibiting an active low V2 grammar; (ii) it shares with other Old Romance varieties the use of expletive elements to satisfy the V2 parameter; (iii) Early Old Catalan differs notably from 13th century Catalan in the use of the left periphery and the application of V2. The findings in this study cast light over the fragmentation of the Romance linguistic continuum at syntactic level and open new avenues of research on the matter.