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Universal 1380:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1380:

Original
Question-word Fronting and Basic Word Order:
A fronted WH-question word will be preferred across languages in proportion to the distance between WH and the subcategorizing verb in its basic order: the smaller the FGD, the more the WH-word is fronted.
Standardized
Question-word Fronting and Basic Word Order:
A fronted WH-question word will be preferred across languages in proportion to the distance between WH and the subcategorizing verb in its basic order: the smaller the FGD, the more the WH-word is fronted.
Keywords
question, fronting, order
Domain
syntax
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
statistical
Basis
merged sample of 87 languages from Greenberg 1963 and Ultan 1978c
Source
Hawkins 1999: 274
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    1. Filler-Gap Domain [FGD]: An FGD consists of the smallest terminal and non-terminal nodes dominated by the mother of a filler and on a connected path that must be accessed for gap identification and processing; for subcategorized gaps the path connects the filler to the gap’s subcategorizor and includes, or is extended to include, the gap’s dependent and disambiguating arguments (if any); for non-subcategorized gaps the path connects the filler to the gap site; all constituency relations and co-occurrence requirements holding between these nodes belong to the description of the FGD.2. The distributional pattern (VSO > SVO > SOV) below gives a clear account of this (Hawkins 1999: 274). WH-fronting and verb position: V-initial: 17/20 languages = 85%; SVO: 25/34 languages = 73.5%; SOV: 7/33 languages = 21% .

    1. May 2020

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