[In subject-final languages] With much greater than chance frequency articles precede the nouns.
Standardized
IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN articles most frequently precede the nouns.
Keywords
order, subject, object, article
Domain
syntax
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
statistical
Basis
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
In Batak (West Malay-Polynesian), the article (which also functions as the third person inanimater personal pronoun) follows the noun (Keenan 1978: 298).
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.
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.