Universal #1520

Legacy number: 1520

 Number  1516
 Original  Subject-final languages have relatively little nominal case marking.
 Standardized  IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN there will be little nominal case marking.
 Formula  OS ⇒ little nominal case marking
 Keywords  order, subject, object, case
 Domain  inflection, syntax
 Type  implication
 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: 289, G-6

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Discussion
Notes
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.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
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.