Universal 99: Rel ≥ Gen ≥ Adj ≥ (Dem/Num)
- Original
- Heaviness Serialization Principle:
Rel ≥ Gen ≥ Adj ≥ (Dem/Num).Relative heaviness is a composite notion defined in terms of (at least) the following four factors:
length and quantity of morphemes, quantity of words, syntactic depth of branching nodes, inclusion of dominated constituents. - Standardized
- Within noun phrases, lighter constituents tend to precede heavier constituents, as follows:
Dem/Num ≥ Adj ≥ Gen ≥ Rel
Relative heaviness is a composite notion defined in terms of (at least) the following four factors:
length and quantity of morphemes, quantity of words, syntactic depth of branching nodes, inclusion of dominated constituents. - Keywords
- relative clause, attributive, genitive, adjective, demonstrative, numeral, order, heaviness, complexity
- Domain
- syntax
- Type
- implicational hierarchy
- Status
- achronic
- Quality
- statistical (according to author absolute)
- Basis
- sample of 350 languages in Hawkins 1983
- Source
- Hawkins 1983: 90
- Counterexamples
- Old Egyptian (Afro-Asiatic) sometimes has N-Adj-Gen (e.g. TpH-t wr-t Jwnw [cave-FEM great-FEM Heliopolis] ‘the Great Cave of Heliopolis’) and N-Dem-Adj-Gen (e.g. gs pw j#btj p-t [side DEM eastern sky-FEM] ‘this eastern side of the sky’) instead of N-Gen-Adj (e.g. TpH-t Jwnw wr-t [cave-FEM Heliopolis great-FEM]) and N-Gen-Dem-Adj (gs p-t pw j#btj [side sky-FEM DEM eastern]) or N-Dem-Adj-Determ-N (gs pw j#btj n- p-t [side DEM eastern that_of sky-FEM]). (F. Kammerzell, p.c.)
1. “” means “exhibits more or equal rightward positioning relative to the head noun across languages”. That is, heavier noun modifiers occur to the right. This principle holds only for prepositional languages. In fact, all implications of the Prepositional Noun Modifier Hierarchy (#92) follow from the Heaviness Serialization Principle. 2. Since the 1990s, Hawkins proposes alternative explanations of his universals (see e.g. Hawkins 1993: 234).