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Universal 5: SOV & N Gen ⇒ N Adj

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 5: SOV & N Gen ⇒ N Adj

Original
If a language has dominant SOV order and the genitive follows the governing noun, then the adjective likewise follows the noun.
Standardized
IF basic order is SOV and attributive nouns (genitive) follow the head noun, THEN attributive adjectives likewise follow the noun.
Keywords
order, SOV, attributive, genitive, adjective
Domain
syntax
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
statistical
Basis
30 languages of Greenberg 1963 sample
Source
Greenberg 1963: 79, #5
Counterexamples
Tigre (Semitic, Afro-Asiatic) (Dryer 2000)

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    0. Though “dominant” ¤ “basic”, there seem to be occasional uses of the former as interchangeable with the latter – whatever the latter really means. In the Standardized renderings, “basic” is the preferred epithet. 1. Dryer 1986: 98 (506-language sample): “There is no clear evidence for the correlation between Genitive-Noun and Adjective-Noun order”. As to the conjunction in the implicans, although this does not affect the implication as such:Dryer 1988: 192 (316-language sample): “OV languages exhibit a strong tendency to be GN”. Dryer 1992: 91-92 (543-language sample): “there is an overwhelming preference for GenN order among OV languages”.2. Hengeveld, Rijkhoff, & Siewierska 1997 suggest a reformulation of this universal (see #1346): If a language has dominant SOV order and the genitive follows the governing noun and the language has a parts-of-speech system of types 4-5/6, then the adjective likewise follows the noun.(For full reference about types of parts-of-speech systems see #248.)3. Cf. Hawkins’ statement (#65).

    1. May 2020

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