Cue-based Acquisition and Information Structure Drift in Diachronic Language Development

Within a model of language acquisition and change which recognizes the importance of cues and so-called ‘micro-cues’ in the input (e.g. Lightfoot 1999, 2006, Westergaard 2006, 2007), this paper argues that patterns of information structure may be a factor causing word order change. The examples discussed are taken from mixed grammars which allow two subject or object positions, in both historical and present-day data, mainly from English and the Scandinavian languages. In these systems children are exposed to the cue for a particular word order, e.g. OV or verb-second (V2), in only some of the relevant contexts in the primary linguistic data (PLD). The following examples provide evidence of such mixed word order systems from the history of English. In (1) and (2) we see that Old English (OE) allowed both OV and VO, while (3) and (4) illustrate that also V2 and non-V2 word orders are attested during the same time period.