Negative elements precede the verb in subject-final languages.
Standardized
IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN negative elements precede the verb.
Keywords
order, subject, object, negation
Domain
syntax
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
absolute
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
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. W. Lehmann (#15) states the correlation between verb/object and verb/verbal modifiers order: Negation is placed before verb roots in VO languages. Dryer, on his sample of 345 languages (#444), claims that negation should precede the verb in verb-initial languages. Languages in Keenan’s sample meet both properties, i.e. being VO and verb-initial, therefore it is questionable whether the position of negation is dependent on the property of being subject-final.
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. W. Lehmann (#15) states the correlation between verb/object and verb/verbal modifiers order: Negation is placed before verb roots in VO languages. Dryer, on his sample of 345 languages (#444), claims that negation should precede the verb in verb-initial languages. Languages in Keenan’s sample meet both properties, i.e. being VO and verb-initial, therefore it is questionable whether the position of negation is dependent on the property of being subject-final.