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Universal 1344: VO ⇒ adjective-marker-standard;
OV ⇒ standard-marker-adjective

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1344: VO ⇒ adjective-marker-standard;
OV ⇒ standard-marker-adjective

Original
In comparative structures (e.g. ‘taller than John’) there’s a correlation between
VO order and adjective-marker-standard order and between OV order and standard-marker-adjective order.
Standardized
IF basic order is VO, THEN there is adjective-marker-standard order.
IF basic order is OV, THEN there is standard-marker-adjective order.
Keywords
order, OV, VO, adjective, comparison
Domain
syntax
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
statistical
Basis
434 languages of Dryer 1992 sample
Source
Dryer 1992: 91
Counterexamples
Chinese (Sinitic, Sino-Tibetan): VO & StAdj

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    1. See also Greenberg’s statement in #61. This universal and #61 can be combined by transitivity. The combination will result in two statements: OV => Postpositions (cf. #491), and VO => Prepositions (cf. #55). 2. This universal is a part of Dryer’s Branching Direction Theory (BDT) discussed in Dryer 1992: 108-118.

    1. May 2020

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