Changes in English word order and the loss of VSO*

The present paper investigates the Verb-Subject-Object order in the history of English. On the basis of current theoretical approaches to word order, we argue that in the diachrony of English, both derivations of VSO order (cf. Roussou Tsimpli 2006) could be found. VSO clauses are allowed due to the strong D-features of English until the 12th century (when English DPs were inflected for case and phi-features); however, VSO orders were not lost in Middle English (when the loss of case distinctions occurred) as Middle English changed to a CP-V2 language (cf. Kroch Taylor 1997).