Subject informational status and word order: Catalan as an SVO language

•Contrary to Vallduví, 1993 and Vallduví, 2002, Catalan is an SVO language.•Subjects do not mirror the behavior of verbal complements in Catalan.•Subject preverbal position in situ is necessary for all-rheme readings of sentences.•Postverbal subjects in situ tend to present narrow focus in Catalan.•In Catalan, the VOS ordering is restricted to a specific rhetorical function.

This work presents some qualitative findings that lead to the conclusion that Catalan is not a VOS language, as argued by Vallduví, 1993 and Vallduví, 2002, but rather presents, prototypically, an SVO arrangement. Vallduví’s isomorphy between complement and subject behavior as to their position in the structure cannot be sustained, because complements and subjects do not seem to occupy the same number of slots. In situ preverbal position (not available for complements) is generally necessary for subjects in all-rheme readings of Catalan sentences, since in situ postverbal subjects tend to present narrow focus. Hence, VOS ordering is not a possible arrangement for Catalan, except for specific rhetorically charged cases, which can and will be accounted for on independent grounds.