IF full noun phrase subjects must follow full noun phrase direct objects, THEN the verb is initial.
Keywords
order, verb-initial, subject, object
Domain
syntax
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
absolute
Basis
Malagasy, Batak [Toba Dialect], Fijian, Gilbertese (all Malay-Polynesian), Tzeltal (Mayan), Otomi (Oto-Manguean), Ineseño Chumash (Hokan), Baure (Arawakan), Tzotzil, Kekchi (both Mayan), Tsou (Formosan, Austronesian), although the last three languages are not surveyed in the paper
1. In SUBJECT-FINAL languages, full noun phrase subjects must follow noun phrase direct obejcts in the pragmatically less marked sentence types (which contain both subjects and direct objects) of the language. Sentences which are PRAGMATICALLY LESS MARKED place the fewest restrictions on their contexts of appropriate use. Accordnig to Keenan, subject-final languages normally occur in linguistic phyla in which verb-initial languages are common (1978b: 286, G-2).2. Cf. statements by Greenberg and Pullum: ##490, 1187.
1. In SUBJECT-FINAL languages, full noun phrase subjects must follow noun phrase direct obejcts in the pragmatically less marked sentence types (which contain both subjects and direct objects) of the language. Sentences which are PRAGMATICALLY LESS MARKED place the fewest restrictions on their contexts of appropriate use. Accordnig to Keenan, subject-final languages normally occur in linguistic phyla in which verb-initial languages are common (1978b: 286, G-2).2. Cf. statements by Greenberg and Pullum: ##490, 1187.