ИСТИНА

I discuss the possibility that Germanic V2 systems might have originated from CL2 word order systems similar to those attested in Slavic languages. In languages where the clitic linearization constraints are more prominent (i.e. grammaticalized) than verb linearization constraints (e.g. V2, V1/V2, V1, V# etc) clitics attract verbs to clitic-adjacent positions, which explains the generation of V2 orders in standard W-systems with Wackernagel’s law (Slovak, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, Old Novgorod Russian) and V1 ~V3 orders in W+-systems which have a combination of 2P clitics and clitic-verb-adjacency. It is plausible that Germanic languages at some moment of their history generalized V2 as an effect of the initial topical Barrier mechanism. The Wackernagel parallels do not tell us, whether this mechanism of V2 grammaticalization is the only one possible. V2 and CL 2 are shallow constraints of narrow syntax, specific of their language classes, and not principle of UG. Syntactic systems with a bottleneck conditions (CL2 and V2) are similar, but clause-level clitics clusterize, while verbs and complementizers usually do not. The transition from CL2 systems to V2 systems is a puzzle, but Delbruck’s and Anderson’s model’s based on the grammar analogy (from clitic verb forms to all finite verbs) are falsifiable. Information structure and prosody are not sufficient triggers for CL2 and V2 orders, but they can influence some derived C2 and (probably) V2 orders. Cartographic theories pretend for the role of UG principles, but rather look as extrapolations basing on ca. 10-30 European languages, most of which have V2 and/or clitics plus verb movement and wh-movement.