Universal #1519

Legacy number: 1519

 Number  1515
 Original  If transitive verbs in subject-final languages present agreement at all, then they have a prefixal (pre-verb stem) agreement with the subject noun phrase and a suffixal agreement with a nonsubject.
 Standardized  Whenever transitive verbs in subject-final languages have agreement at all, there is prefixal (pre-verb stem) agreement with the subject noun phrase and suffixal agreement with a non-subject.
 Formula  OS & transitive verbs show agreement ⇒ s-V-o
 Keywords  order, subject, object, agreement, affix-order, prefix, suffix
 Domain  inflection, syntax
 Type  no genuine implication; rather: provided that
 Status  achronic
 Quality  absolute
 Basis  Malagasy, Batak [Toba Dialect], Fijian, Gilbertese (all Malayo-Polynesian), Tzeltal (Mayan), Otomi (Oto-Manguean), Ineseño Chumash (Hokan), Baure (Arawakan), Tzotzil, Kekchi (both Mayan), Tsou (Formosan, Austronesian), although the last three languages are not surveyed in the paper
 Source  Keenan 1978b: 288, G-5

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Discussion
Notes
1. By SUBJECT-FINAL languages Keenan means any language in which full noun phrase subjects must follow noun phrase direct objects in the pragmatically less marked sentence types (which contain both subjects and direct objects) of the language. Sentences which are pragmatically less marked place the fewest restrictions on their contexts of appropriate use. 2. Cf. a reverse correlation of Kozinsky’s (#355): In the languages where the verb agrees with subject and object, if there are forms like s-V-o, and there are no forms like o-V-s, then the dominant word order is the one with the initial predicate position (VSO or VOS).
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
1. By SUBJECT-FINAL languages Keenan means any language in which full noun phrase subjects must follow noun phrase direct objects in the pragmatically less marked sentence types (which contain both subjects and direct objects) of the language. Sentences which are PRAGMATICALLY LESS MARKED place the fewest restrictions on their contexts of appropriate use.

2. Cf. a reverse correlation of Kozinsky's (<a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=355"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">): In the languages where the verb agrees with subject and object, if there are forms like s-V-o, and there are no forms like o-V-s, then the dominant word order is the one with the initial predicate position (VSO or VOS).