Universal 1515: OS & transitive verbs show agreement ⇒ s-V-o
Original
If transitive verbs in subject-final languages present agreement at all, then they have a prefixal (pre-verb stem) agreement with the subject noun phrase and a suffixal agreement with a nonsubject.
Standardized
Whenever transitive verbs in subject-final languages have agreement at all, there is prefixal (pre-verb stem) agreement with the subject noun phrase and suffixal agreement with a non-subject.
Malagasy, Batak [Toba Dialect], Fijian, Gilbertese (all Malayo-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. By SUBJECT-FINAL languages Keenan means any language in which full noun phrase subjects must follow noun phrase direct objects 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. 2. Cf. a reverse correlation of Kozinsky’s (#355): In the languages where the verb agrees with subject and object, if there are forms like s-V-o, and there are no forms like o-V-s, then the dominant word order is the one with the initial predicate position (VSO or VOS).
1. By SUBJECT-FINAL languages Keenan means any language in which full noun phrase subjects must follow noun phrase direct objects 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. 2. Cf. a reverse correlation of Kozinsky’s (#355): In the languages where the verb agrees with subject and object, if there are forms like s-V-o, and there are no forms like o-V-s, then the dominant word order is the one with the initial predicate position (VSO or VOS).