Universal #1617

Legacy number: 1617

 Number  1613
 Original  Concord is common among VO languages, particularly when the order of constituents is modifier-Noun and thus inconsistent with the basic VO order.
 Standardized  Whenever basic order is VO, IF the modifier precedes the noun, THEN there tends to be agreement between noun and modifier.
 Formula  VO & ModifierN ⇒ Modifier-N agreement
 Keywords  order, VO, agreement, NP, modifier, attribution, relative clause, adjective
 Domain  inflection, syntax
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 Basis  13 SVO languages: Yoruba (Defoid, Niger-Congo), Thai (Kam-Thai), Greek (Hellenic, IE), Italian, Romanian (both Romance, IE), Guaraní (Tupi), Finnish (Uralic), Norwegian (Germanic, IE), Malay (Sundic, Western Malayo-Polynesian), Swahili (Central Eastern Bantu, Niger-Congo), Fulani (Atlantic, Niger-Congo), Serbocroatian (Slavic, IE), and Modern Hebrew (Semitic, Afro-Asiatic).
6 V-initial languages: Welsh (Celtic, IE), Maori (Oceanic, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian), Malagasy (Barito, Western Malayo-Polynesian), Papago (Uto-Aztecan), Maya (Mayan), and Classical Arabic (Semitic, Afro-Asiatic).
 Source  Foster & Hofling 1987: 489

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Discussion
Counterexamples
1. V-initial & AdjN but no agreement between N and Adj: Papago and Maya, though agreement is optional in the latter. 2. SVO & GenN but no genitive agreeing with a possessed noun: Finnish, Guaraní, and Norwegian. In Guaraní, however, the possessed noun is marked by a possessive affix, and in Finnish and Norwegian, there is a genitive case marker to indicate the NP relations.(Foster & Hofling 1987)3. Note that demonstratives, determiners, numerals, and interrogative adjectives seem to be inconsistent with a basic word order and tend to precede the the modified noun.
Notes
1. The authors considered the following categories as MODIFIERs of the noun: adjectives (Adj), demonstratives (Dem), determiners (Det) (when applicable), genitives (Gen), numerals (Num), interrogative adjectives (Int), relative clauses (Rel).2. Under AGREEMENT the authors “include all instances where the modifier is morphosyntactically marked to indicate semantic features of the modified noun, such as number, case, and gender, whether or not the modified noun is marked for these features” (Foster & Hofling 1987: 481). Note that the presence of classifiers serves the same function as agreement marking. 3. About the expected order of Noun-modifier in VO languages see #107.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
1. The authors considered the following categories as MODIFIERs of the noun: adjectives (Adj), demonstratives (Dem), determiners (Det) (when applicable), genitives (Gen), numerals (Num), interrogative adjectives (Int), relative clauses (Rel).

2. Under AGREEMENT the authors "include all instances where the modifier is morphosyntactically marked to indicate semantic features of the modified noun, such as number, case, and gender, whether or not the modified noun is marked for these features" (Foster & Hofling 1987: 481). Note that the presence of classifiers serves the same function as agreement marking.

3. About the expected order of Noun-modifier in VO languages see <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=107"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">.