Universal #1348

Legacy number: 1348

 Number  1344
 Original  In comparative structures (e.g. ‘taller than John’) there’s a correlation between
VO order and adjective-marker-standard order and between OV order and standard-marker-adjective order.
 Standardized  IF basic order is VO, THEN there is adjective-marker-standard order.
IF basic order is OV, THEN there is standard-marker-adjective order.
 Formula  VO ⇒ adjective-marker-standard;
OV ⇒ standard-marker-adjective
 Keywords  order, OV, VO, adjective, comparison
 Domain  syntax
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 Basis  434 languages of Dryer 1992 sample
 Source  Dryer 1992: 91

← Back to Universals Archive

Discussion
Counterexamples
Chinese (Sinitic, Sino-Tibetan): VO & StAdj
Notes
1. See also Greenberg’s statement in #61. This universal and #61 can be combined by transitivity. The combination will result in two statements: OV => Postpositions (cf. #491), and VO => Prepositions (cf. #55). 2. This universal is a part of Dryer’s Branching Direction Theory (BDT) discussed in Dryer 1992: 108-118.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
1. See also Greenberg's statement in <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=61"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">. This universal and <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=61"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0"> can be combined by transitivity. The combination will result in two statements: OV ⇒ Postpositions (cf. <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=491"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">), and VO ⇒ Prepositions (cf. <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=55"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">).

2. This universal is a part of Dryer's Branching Direction Theory (BDT) discussed in Dryer 1992: 108-118.