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Universal 296:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 296:

Original
In all languages: if the noun has no case, and the verb has no such categories which could point out the relation of the noun to the verb and the noun to the noun, then SVO, OSV.
Standardized
IF nouns do not inflect for case and verbs carry no relational marking either, THEN basic order is SVO or OSV.
Keywords
noun, case, verb, order, SVO, OSV, grammatical relations
Domain
inflection, syntax
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
absolute?
Basis
unspecified
Source
see Vardul’ 1969, referring to Rozdestvenskij
Counterexamples
Ancient Egyptian (esp. Old/ Middle Egyptian) and Biblical Hebrew have the basic word order VSO but no case (neither has the verb a category to indicate nominal case) (Carsten Peust, p.c.)

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP
    1. May 2020

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