Explaining language change: A three step process

Furthermore, OV-order is taken to include not only sentences
where a nominal object precedes the main verb, but also
sentences where other complements of the main verb precede it
(PPs, adverbials, adjectives, and other non-finite verbs). The
aim was to only take into account adverbials and PPs that are
complements of the main verb.
Texts All clauses
OV VO Total % OV
14th century 230 165 395 58.2 %
15th century 140 112 252 55.6 %
16th century 129 103 232 55.6 %
17th century 298 298 596 50.0 %
18th century 88 150 238 37.0 %
19th century 493 2669 3162 15.6 %
1378 3497 4875
Table 2: Number of clauses with OV- and VO-orders
(in each century)
OV-orders occurred most frequently in texts dating from the
fourteenth to seventeenth centuries (from an average of 58.2%
to 50.0%) and decreased to an average of 37.0% in texts from
the eighteenth century. OV word order then gradually
disappeared in texts and letters dating from the nineteenth
century.
There are reasons to believe that there have been two crucial
changes in the history of Icelandic; the former one presumably
taking place prior to the earliest attested Icelandic texts, where
there was a change from a grammar that only allowed OV word
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