Universal #1564

Legacy number: 1564

 Number  1560
 Original  With possibly greater than chance frequency, the verb in verb-initial languages either agrees with no NPs, or with two NPs (both subject and direct object, or sometimes subject and indirect object).
 Standardized  IF basic order is verb-initial, THEN the verb either agrees with no NPs or with two NPs.
 Formula  verb-initial ⇒ no verb agreement V. agreement with two noun phrases
 Keywords  order, verb-initial, verb, agreement, subject, object
 Domain  inflection, syntax
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 Basis  unknown
 Source  unpublished statements of Keenan’s, reproduced in D. Payne 1990: 15

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Discussion
Notes
Cf. #1518 about subject-final langugages, which are all VOS, following from Keenan’s survey (#1516): If a language is subject-final then either transitive verbs of unmarked sentences agree with no full noun phrase in the sentence or they agree with two noun phrases.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
Cf. <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1518"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0"> about subject-final langugages, which are all VOS, following from Keenan's survey (<a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1516"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">): If a language is subject-final then either transitive verbs of unmarked sentences agree with no full noun phrase in the sentence or they agree with two noun phrases.