Verb-Third (V3) constructions, i.e. root clauses displaying more than one element in their prefield, have been attested throughout the history of German. In this paper, I discuss some methodological issues related to the investigation of this structure in Early Old High German (EOHG, eighth to ninth century). In this language stage, the linear syntax of matrix clauses is very unstable—mainly due to the not-yet complete systematization of the V2/verb-final distinction and to the considerable amount of extraposition in main clauses—which makes the detection of this construction in the available texts particularly challenging. Moreover, little substantial and reliable prose data are extant for this period. In order to get a realistic picture of the distribution of the phenomenon at stake in EOHG, it is therefore necessary to evaluate the data by means of diagnostic tests for verb movement and only consider those cases in which the verb is unambiguously located in C and the preverbal area hosts multiple (head or non-head) elements. I will show that: (1) some of the patterns that are usually assumed to be good candidates for the category of V3 in the relevant literature are never attested in the diagnostic dataset; (2) a typology consisting of five non-correlative and three correlative diagnostic V3 constructions can be identified on the basis of an approach based on replicable methods; (3) some of these patterns display historical continuity; (4) non-prose texts are inadequate for syntactic investigations.

动词第三（V3）结构，即在其前域中显示多个元素的词根子句，已在整个德语历史中得到证实。在本文中，我讨论了与研究早期古高地德语（EOHG，八至九世纪）的这种结构相关的一些方法论问题。在这个语言阶段，矩阵从句的线性句法非常不稳定——主要是由于V2/动词词尾区别尚未完全系统化以及主句中大量的外置——这使得这种结构的检测在现有文本中特别具有挑战性。此外，这一时期的大量可靠的散文资料也很少。为了真实地了解 EOHG 中所涉现象的分布情况，有必要通过动词运动的诊断测试来评估数据，并且只考虑动词明确位于 C 中和动词前区域包含多个（中心或非中心）元素。我将证明：（1）相关文献中通常被认为是 V3 类别的良好候选者的一些模式从未在诊断数据集中得到证实； (2)可以基于基于可复制方法的方法来识别由五个非相关和三个相关诊断V3结构组成的类型学； (3) 其中一些模式显示出历史连续性； (4)非散文文本不足以进行句法研究。