In the framework of Generative Grammar, one of the most discussed aspects of the grammatical evolution of Romance languages is the syntax of verb position. In particular, there has been an intense debate regarding whether these languages, in old stages, manifested verb movement to the left periphery in a similar way as V2 languages like German (ADAMS, 1987; BENINCÀ, 1984; ROBERTS, 1993; FONTANA, 1993; RIBEIRO, 1995; SALVI, 2004). In this paper, we will discuss the verb position problem in texts of Classical Portuguese, an intermediate period between Old Portuguese and Modern European Portuguese. Two 17th century texts, considered here as representatives of the grammar of Classical Portuguese, were selected and their syntactic analysis shows that the Portuguese grammar of that stage demanded the verb movement instantiation to C0, thus evidencing its V2 nature, at least concerning the syntax of verb position.
Generative grammar; Classical portuguese; Verb position; V2 Effect
