Universal #1530

Legacy number: 1530

 Number  1526
 Original  Negative elements precede the verb in subject-final languages.
 Standardized  IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN negative elements precede the verb.
 Formula  OS ⇒ Neg Verb
 Keywords  order, subject, object, negation
 Domain  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: 299, G-16

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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. W. Lehmann (#15) states the correlation between verb/object and verb/verbal modifiers order: Negation is placed before verb roots in VO languages. Dryer, on his sample of 345 languages (#444), claims that negation should precede the verb in verb-initial languages. Languages in Keenan’s sample meet both properties, i.e. being VO and verb-initial, therefore it is questionable whether the position of negation is dependent on the property of being subject-final.
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. W. Lehmann (<a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=15"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">) states the correlation between verb/object and verb/verbal modifiers order: Negation is placed before verb roots in VO languages. Dryer, on his sample of 345 languages (<a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=444"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">), claims that negation should precede the verb in verb-initial languages. Languages in Keenan's sample meet both properties, i.e. being VO and verb-initial, therefore it is questionable whether the position of negation is dependent on the property of being subject-final.