This paper addresses the relation between two types of word order variation in two stages of Dutch: OV/VO variation in historical Dutch and scrambling in present-day Dutch. Information structural considerations influence both types of word order variation, and we demonstrate by means of a comprehensive corpus study that they have a comparable pattern: given objects tend to appear earlier in the sentence than new objects. We infer from this that the two types of word order variation are diachronically related. Our findings support an analysis of scrambling as object movement from a uniformly head-initial base via the specifier of VP to the specifier of vP. We argue that historical Dutch allows spell out of the object in its postverbal base position, but that this possibility was eventually lost. Consequently, the boundary between the given and new domains shifts from the verb to the adverbial.

本文探讨了荷兰语两个阶段中两种词序变化之间的关系：历史荷兰语中的 OV/VO 变化和现代荷兰语中的加扰。信息结构考虑影响这两种类型的词序变化，我们通过全面的语料库研究证明它们具有可比较的模式：给定对象往往比新对象更早出现在句子中。我们由此推断，这两种类型的词序变化是历时相关的。我们的研究结果支持对加扰的分析，即物体从一致的头部初始基础通过 VP 的说明符到v的说明符P. 我们认为，历史上的荷兰语允许在其动词后基本位置拼出对象，但这种可能性最终消失了。因此，给定域和新域之间的边界从动词转移到了状语。