Abstract

In Modern German (MG), only one phrase can stand in the prefield. There are very few exceptions to that rule. In Early New High German (ENHG), clauses with two phrases in the prefield are more common. The ENHG data is partly in discord with Müller's (2005) hypothesis that double prefield-filling is due to movement of a partly emptied VP. In this paper I propose a new analysis in the framework of Optimality Theory that can apply both to MG and ENHG. Constraints are assigned to several information structural properties of phrases capable of vorfeld-movement. The interaction of constraints determines what is moving to the prefield in the end. The effect that in ENHG double vorfeld-filling was more common than in MG is explained by an increase in the value of the constraint that selects the candidate with only one phrase in the prefield.