V2

[nigel vincent]

Here for general consumption is a message re V2 that I sent to Leon:

>I don't know about the non-pro-drop query you raise, but there's certainly
>a lot of stuff arguing for V2 across a range of Indo-European languages.
>There is a lot of evidence for V2 in Old French and Mediaeval Northern
>Italian dialects (cf work by Vance, Beninca', etc.) Our colleague here at
>Manchester David Willis has  just published a book showing the presence of
>V2 patterns in Middle Welsh (OUP 1998) and there is a recent doctorate by
>an Italian, Franco Benucci, arguing that the language of the Iguvine
>Tables (the first substantial Italic text) is V2. The lesson seems to be
>that V2 is a widespread effect in I-E langs, maybe even therefore
>reconstructible back to some early stage. Continental Germanic would then
>be the last survivor rather than the only exemplar. I don't know what the
>evidence for V2 outside I-E, though of course lots of languages have
>second position effects (Luiseno and Warlpiri are two that spring
>immediately to mind), and V2 may just be a special sub-case of this.

Nigel Vincent	               Tel: +44-(0)161-275 3194
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