Universal #1632

Legacy number: 1632

 Number  1627
 Original  If a language has the order VOS, OVS, OSV and has a double object construction, the patient in that clause should precede the other object.
 Standardized  IF basic order is VOS, OVS, or OSV and there is a double object construction, THEN the patient in that clause precedes the other object.

OR

IF in a basic word order object precedes subject and there is a double object construction, THEN the patient in that clause precedes the other object.
 Keywords  order, VOS, OVS, OSV, double object, patient
 Domain  syntax
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  absolute
 Basis  Object before Subject languages: VOS: Tzotzil (Mayan), Malagasy (Malayo-Polynesian), OVS: Hixkaryana (Carib), Pari (Nilotic, Nilo-Saharan), OSV: Hurrian (isolate), Kabardian (North Caucasian); Subject before Object languages: SOV: Tamil (Dravidian), Korean (Altaic), SVO: Kinyarwanda (Bantu, Niger-Congo), Dutch [in the main clause](Germanic, IE), VSO: Biblical Hebrew (Semitic, Afro-Asiatic)
 Source  Polinsky 1995: 188

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Discussion
Notes
Polinsky mentions that “linearization rules become particularly stringent only under coding conflict, where other disambiguation means are absent”. “Patient-before-agent” languages without coding conflict may deviate from this rule. (1995: 190)
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
Polinsky mentions that "linearization rules become particularly stringent only under coding conflict, where other disambiguation means are absent". "Patient-before-agent" languages without coding conflict may deviate from this rule. (Polinsky 1995: 190)