Word Order Typology

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Word Order Typology

• (based on Comrie 1981, Song 2011)
• ??

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Founding father the 60s

• Joseph Greenberg (1963 talk at First Dobbs
  Conference on Language Universals) - ts-ts!
• 30 (140) languages
• 1966 Some universals 45 universals
• Universal 1 In declarative sentences with
  nominal subject and object, the dominant order is
  almost always one in which the subject precedes
  the object
• VSO -gt prepositional (almost absolute)

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Methodological preliminaries

• Issue of basicness
• Full NPs, prototypical definite S and O,
  independent clause, stylistically neutral
• Pronominal clitics misbehave
• Main and dependent clauses diverge
• Interrogative may have special orders
• etc.
• Frequencies, morphological unmarkedness
• Flexible word orders not considered

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Methodological preliminaries

• Misnomer
• Not worder order typology
• Rather, order of major constituents
• Cf. Greenbergs order of meaningful elements
• Well have to live with it, though

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Methodological preliminaries

• A model topic for cross-linguistic research
• Typological patterns with no apparent language
  specific validity
• We may not care about what basic word order is
  while describing an individual language
• But present-day processing-based theories of
  explanation (Hawkins) may be relevant for
  individual grammars

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Main lines of research

• Possible orders of clause constituents
• SOV, SVO, VSO, VOS, OVS, OSV
• All attested, but unequally
• Correlation looking for universal implications
  between orders of different types of constituents
• Adpositions, adjectives, possessors, RelClauses
• Explanation looking for basic principle of
  constituency
• Branching? Processing?

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Dominant orders

• kiho-ka saca-l?l cha-ass-ta
  (Korean)
• Keeho-NOM lion-ACC kick-PST-IND
• Keeho kicked the/a lion.
• khon níi kàt ma?a tua nán
  (Thai)
• man this bite dog CLF that
• This man bit that dog.
• Lladdodd draig ddyn
  (Welsh)
• killed dragon man
• A dragon killed a man. (cited after Song 2011)

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Rare orders

• manasa ny lamba ny vehivavy
  (Malagasy)
• wash the clothes the woman
• The woman is washing the clothes.
• pi? kokampö unki?
  (Panare)
• child washes woman
• The woman washes the child.
• samuuy yi qa-wùh (Nad?b)
• howler-monkey people eat
• People eat howler-monkeys. (cited after Song
  2011)

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From correlations to explanations

• VSO / SVO / SOV Pr / Po NG / GN NA / AN
• Out of combinations only 15 attested, and
  only 4 widespread
• VSO Pr NG NA
• SVO Pr NG NA
• SOV Po GN AN
• SOV Po GG NA
• Invites for generalizations! From unilateral
  implications to language types / profiles
• S as a bad predictor S dismissed

24
O follows V
O precedes V
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Lehmann (70s)

• FPP Fundamental Principle of Placement
• Concomitance V O vs. O V
• Modifiers are placed on the other side of the
  Concomitant
• Adj, Gen, Rel
• Inconsistent languages languages under change
• Profiles VO and OVrather than literal VO/OV
• Persian VO, but (S)OV

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Vennemann (70s)

• PNS Principle of natural serialization
• Head (operand) vs. modifiers, or dependents
  (operator)
• Order ltdependent,headgt determined by ltO,Vgt
• Theory-dependent adpositions should be
  considered heads

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Vennemann (70s)
OPERAND verb verb auxiliary noun noun noun noun no
un comparison marker comparative
adjective adposition
OPERATOR object adverbial main verb adjective rela
tive clause genitive numeral determiner adjective
standard of comparison noun phrase
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Vennemann (70s) Der Teufel steckt im detail -
overgeneralization

• VSO / SVO / SOV Pr / Po NG / GN NA / AN
• Out of 24 combinations, Vennemann allows only 3
• VSO Pr NG NA
• SVO Pr NG NA
• SOV Po GN AN
• SOV Po GN NA
• Hawkins counts that this accounts for slightly
  less than 50 of his sample
• But Comries ammendment scale rather than two
  binary classes
• SVO bad predictor (nonce in Greenbergs
  universals)
• But Dryers larger sample show that the factor
  is overestimated SVO do pattern with VSO, on the
  whole (SOV --- SVO VSO)

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Hawkins 1983

• Make no exception for me, please!
• Complicated system of multi-conditioned
  implications
• Pr -gt (NA -gt NG)
• Pr -gt (NDem -gt NA)
• Pr -gt (NNum -gt NA), ?????????????
• Pr -gt (Ndem -gt NG), Pr -gt (NNum -gt NG)
• Two exceptions! Ammendment
• Pr -SVO -gt (NDem -gt NG)
• Pr -SVO -gt (NNum -gt NG)

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Hawkins 1983

• Shift from clause to NP constituents
  implications translated into HSP
• Heaviness Serialization Principle
• in a Prep language, the heavier the constituent,
  the less likely it is located to the left of the
  head noun
• light Det,Num lt Adj lt Gen lt Rel heavy
• Det/Num N Gen/Rel
• - Gen/Rel N Det/Num
• Incipient functional motivation the ease of
  processing
• Further elaborated in Hawkins 1994, 2004
• More complicated with Post languages
• mobility principle(

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Dryer 1992

• Large and principled sampling
• 600 lgs (1500 in his WALS map)
• weighted for geneology
• Rehabilitation of VOOV typology
• Including arguing for SVO to be indeed VO
• Arguing against head dependent explanations

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Dryer 1992

• Against head dependent explanations
• ANNA order is unpredictable
• Article, auxiliary are predicted in a wrong way
• From dependency to patterning
• V-patterners vs. O-patterners
• genitives and relative clauses are O-patterners
• determiners and numerals are V-patterners
• adjective are none-patterners
• Uh-uh calls for explanation!

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Dryer 1992

• Branching direction theory (BDT). In a XY
  constituent
• the V-patterner is the non-branching
  (non-phrasal) constituent (e.g. noun, article,
  numeral)
• the O-patterner is the branching (phrasal)
  consituent (e.g. genitive phrase, relative
  clause)
• in adjective noun, none is branching
• at least, none is recursively branching

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WOT cornerstones a typology of typologies

• Greenberg order in the clause (SOV etc.)
• Lehman order in the clause (OVVO)
• Vennemann order in the clause (OVVO)
• Hawkins (early) adposition based, implications
  and hierarchies
• Dryer back to OVVO

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