Universal #1312

Legacy number: 1312

 Number  1308
 Original  If a language has SOV, tense affixes on verb (if any) are suffixed with greater than chance frequency.
 Standardized  IF basic order is SOV, THEN tense affixes on verbs are suffixed with greater than chance frequency.
 Formula  SOV ⇒ tense affixes on V are suffixed
 Keywords  order, SOV, verb, tense, affix-order, suffix
 Domain  inflection, syntax
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 Basis  200 languages drawn from three samples: a 113-language sample by L. Stassen, a 40-language sample by J. Bybee & R. Perkins, and a 50-language sample by G. Gilligan
 Source  Cutler, Hawkins, & Gilligan 1985: 729; Hawkins & Gilligan 1988: 224

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Discussion
Counterexamples
Stassen’s sample: 91% of SOV languages with tense affixes are suffixing, 9% are prefixing; Perkins-Bybee’s and Gilligan’s samples: 100% of postpositional languages with tense affixes are suffixing.
Notes
#892 states a general tendency of OV languages to have suffixes and VO languages to have prefixes.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
<a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=892"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0"> states a general tendency of OV languages to have suffixes and VO languages to have prefixes.