The Old Sardinian Condaghes: a syntactic study

This article presents findings of a syntactic study of two Old Sardinian legal documents. It is proposed that Old Sardinian had a verb‐initial syntax, which at face value appears quite distinct from the verb‐second (V2) syntax reported elsewhere in Old Romance. It is suggested, however, that this verb‐initial order is derived by V‐to‐C movement, a feature which is inherited from late Latin and represents a synchronic point of continuity in the syntax of Old Romance varieties. Old Sardinian matrix clauses show evidence for a rich set of left peripheral projections to which subjects can raise, leading to an SVO/VSO alternation which is sensitive to the information structure of the subject constituent in question. There is no direct evidence for these discourse‐related projections in the C‐layer in embedded contexts, leading to a strict VSO word order and suggesting that Old Sardinian may have an impoverished embedded left periphery.