Universal 12: VO ⇒ flexion
- Original
- Consistent VO languages tend to be inflectional in their morphology.
- Standardized
- IF basic order is consistently VO, THEN the morphology tends to be flexive.
- Keywords
- order, VO, flexion
- Domain
- morphology, syntax
- Type
- implication
- Status
- achronic
- Quality
- statistical
- Basis
- languages in Lehmann 1973
- Source
- W.P.Lehmann 1973: 47
- Counterexamples
See also #11.”Flexion” designates a morphological type, as opposed “inflection”. Its hallmark is cumulative exponence (which is sometimes also called “fusion” after Sapir, though Sapir’s notion of “fusion” is arguably not equivalent to cumulation: adjacent morphemes can be “fused” through regular phonology, or they can be morphologically cumulated in the first place).