Universal #1342

Legacy number: 1342

 Number  1338
 Original  The more marked the position in which a word appears, the stronger the tendency for this word to present a marked morphology.
Therefore a marked position (centrifugal, VO, where V is the center and O the periphery) tends to be reflected by a marked morphology (flexional rather than agglutinative).
 Standardized  The more marked the position in which a word appears, the stronger the tendency for this word to present a marked morphology.
Therefore a marked position (centrifugal, VO, where V is the center and O the periphery) tends to be reflected by a marked morphology (flexional rather than agglutinative).

That is:
IF morphology is flexional rather than agglutinative, THEN basic order tends to be VO rather than OV.
IF morphology is agglutinative rather than flexional, THEN basic order tends to be OV rather than VO.
 Formula  VO ⇒ flexion
 Keywords  markedness, order, VO, OV, flexion, agglutination
 Domain  morphology, syntax
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 Basis  languages mentioned in Moreno 1987
 Source  Moreno 1987: 190

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Discussion
Notes
1. Moreno’s correlation of word order syntax with morphological typology is inspired by W. P. Lehmann 1973, see ##11, 13, where OV implies agglutination, while VO implies flexion.2. Examples of languages that are OV & agglutinative: Korean, Basque.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
1. Moreno's correlation of word order syntax with morphological typology is inspired by
W. P. Lehmann 1973, see <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=11"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">, <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=12"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">, where OV implies agglutination, while VO implies flexion.

2. Examples of languages that are OV & agglutinative: Korean, Basque.