Skip to content

Universal 298:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 298:

Original
In all languages: if there is no category definiteness/indefiniteness, then the change of the word order is used as a way of distinguishing the “given” (closer to the beginning of the sentence) and the “new” (closer to its end).
Standardized
IF there is no category of definiteness/indefiniteness, THEN word order is used for distinguishing ‘given’ (coming closer to the beginning of the sentence) and ‘new’ information (closer to its end).
Keywords
definiteness, order, given, new
Domain
syntax, pragmatics
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
absolute
Basis
unspecified
Source
see Vardul’ 1969, referring to Uspensky
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    There are NEW before GIVEN (or Topic Last) lgs, though not plenty.

    1. May 2020

Comments are closed.