Verb and Object Order in the History of English. A language-internal Account

This study takes up the challenge posed by the reanalysis of Verb-Object order as the basic one in the history of English; the question, which has been debated for over thirty years, is tackled in the study by combining a qualitative and quantitative investigation with current linguistic theories, shedding new light on the phenomenon. The data acquired bring new evidence in favour of a universal base order, by exploring the syntax of both Old English and Early Middle English and the information structural and prosodic properties of objects. The investigation is conducted by also considering the philological history of the texts examined, highlighting how this aspect should not be neglected in a diachronic linguistic study.