Universal #15
Legacy number: 15
| Number | 15 |
| Original | Verbal modifiers like those for negation, causation, and reflexive or reciprocal are placed after verb roots in OV languages and before verb roots in VO languages. |
| Standardized | IF basic order is OV, THEN verbal modifiers like those for negation, causation, and reflexive or reciprocal are placed after verb roots. IF basic order is VO, THEN verbal modifiers like those for negation, causation, and reflexive or reciprocal are placed before verb roots. |
| Formula | OV ⇒ V Neg & V Caus & V Refl & V Recipr; VO ⇒ Neg V & Caus V & Refl V & Recipr V |
| Keywords | order, OV, VO, negation, causation, reflexive, reciprocal |
| Domain | inflection, syntax |
| Type | implication |
| Status | achronic |
| Quality | absolute? |
| Basis | languages in Lehmann 1973 |
| Source | W.P.Lehmann 1973: 48 |
Discussion
Counterexamples
Old Egyptian (Afro-Asiatic): strict VO order, but (besides preverbal negations) one marginally used postverbal negation -w (Kammerzell 1993).
Later Egyptian has an originally discontinuous negation bn ... jn (with intensifying element jn), the Coptic successor of which (n ... an) could occur without the initial element, thus forming a new postverbal negation (see F. Junge 1996: 119, Steindorff 1951: 201-204; cf. also French Je sais pas). (F. Kammerzell, p.c.)
Later Egyptian has an originally discontinuous negation bn ... jn (with intensifying element jn), the Coptic successor of which (n ... an) could occur without the initial element, thus forming a new postverbal negation (see F. Junge 1996: 119, Steindorff 1951: 201-204; cf. also French Je sais pas). (F. Kammerzell, p.c.)
Notes
1. According to #107 (also due to W. P. Lehmann), nominal modifiers such as relative, adjectival, and genitival expressions show the reverse ordering.
2. Cf. #441 (due to Dryer): “In SOV languages the negation is commonly placed before or after the verb” — which is partly at odds with #15.
3. Krifka 1985: 87, concerning W. P. Lehmann’ s 1973 principle that there tend to be no intervening elements between object and verb (see #15, 107), hence
Obj modifiers - Obj - V - Sentence mood markers,
Sentence mood markers - V - Obj - Obj modifiers,
suggests a more general principle: “Whenever a complex constituent consisting of a head h and a modifier m is itself a modifier to a head H, then there is a tendency for m not to intervene between h and H. Thus preferred orders: (mh)H, H(hm); dispreferred orders: (hm)H, H(mh).”
2. Cf. #441 (due to Dryer): “In SOV languages the negation is commonly placed before or after the verb” — which is partly at odds with #15.
3. Krifka 1985: 87, concerning W. P. Lehmann’ s 1973 principle that there tend to be no intervening elements between object and verb (see #15, 107), hence
Obj modifiers - Obj - V - Sentence mood markers,
Sentence mood markers - V - Obj - Obj modifiers,
suggests a more general principle: “Whenever a complex constituent consisting of a head h and a modifier m is itself a modifier to a head H, then there is a tendency for m not to intervene between h and H. Thus preferred orders: (mh)H, H(hm); dispreferred orders: (hm)H, H(mh).”
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2. Cf. <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=441"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0"> (due to Dryer): "In SOV languages the negation is commonly placed before or after the verb" – which is partly at odds with <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=15"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">.
3. Krifka 1985: 87, concerning W. P. Lehmann's 1973 principle that there tend to be no intervening elements between object and verb (see <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=15"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">, <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=107"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">), hence
Obj modifiers - Obj - V - Sentence mood markers,
Sentence mood markers - V - Obj - Obj modifiers,
suggests a more general principle: "Whenever a complex constituent consisting of a head h and a modifier m is itself a modifier to a head H, then there is a tendency for m not to intervene between h and H. Thus preferred orders: (mh)H, H(hm); dispreferred orders: (hm)H, H(mh)."