Information Structure and Unmarked Word order in (Older) Germanic.

Basic OV and basic VO order have been accounted for by different settings of the head complement parameter, raising the question of how languages with mixed OV/VO order should be treated. Next to (modern) Yiddish, we find mixed word orders in older stages of the Germanic languages. While mixed word orders in Old English and Old Nordic are subject to thorough investigation and heated debates concerning their correct analysis (cf. Roberts 1997, Pintzuk 1999), the discussion concerning older stages of German has been mute owing to the – as I will show - incorrect assumption that German already was an OV-languages in its oldest accessible stage