ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to explore the consequences of what we might call the Zwart/Kayne view for Old English (OE) and, in particular, for the word-order changes that took place in Middle English (ME). The author argues that the Zwart/Kayne view is at least as good as the more standard views as regards the synchronic analysis of OE, and that it permits a more natural and revealing account of the ME changes. The chapter is organized as follows. The author calls the ‘standard’ GB view of OE word order and describes the ME changes. The ‘standard’ view is a distillation of the work of many researchers, most notably van Kemenade, although it probably does not correspond precisely to any one analysis that has been put forward. The author presents an alternative view, arguing that OE can usefully be seen as a VO language, and discusses the evidence for head-final order in OE IPs and VPs.
