Universal #1529

Legacy number: 1529

 Number  1525
 Original  [In subject-final languages] With much greater than chance frequency articles precede the nouns.
 Standardized  IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN articles most frequently precede the nouns.
 Formula  OS ⇒ Art N
 Keywords  order, subject, object, article
 Domain  syntax
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 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: 298, G-15

← Back to Universals Archive

Discussion
Counterexamples
In Batak (West Malay-Polynesian), the article (which also functions as the third person inanimater personal pronoun) follows the noun (Keenan 1978: 298).
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.