ABSTRACT
This chapter is largely descriptive in nature, providing a backdrop to the more intricate analyses presented in later chapters, which build on the proposals made here for the analysis of basic clause structure in Welsh. Two points of theoretical interest are raised in Chapter One. The first concerns the degree of abstractness required to establish the basic phrasal configurations of Welsh. Despite the surface VSO characteristics of Welsh, I shall argue that the postulation of a VP node is well motivated in both D-and S-structure. A similar analysis has been presented for Irish in McCloskey (1983a). The second point concerns the INFL node. The analysis presented here provides further support for the existence of INFL. It is argued that the two basic word order patterns in finite clauses follow from the operation of a V-fronting rule, moving V into INFL. In some sense, then, the material in this chapter represents certain theoretical commitments in the analysis of VSO languages.
