Universal #1633
Legacy number: 1633
| Number | 1628 |
| Original | If the language has the basic order “topic-before-focus”, then the secondary topic would precede the focus. Correspondingly, in languages where subject precedes object, causee, recipient, and benefactive precede the patient in double object constructions. |
| Standardized | IF basic order is Topic-before-Focus, THEN the secondary topic precedes the focus. Correspondingly: IF subject precedes object in a basic word order, THEN causee, recipient, and benefactive [being secondary topics] precede the patient in double object constructions. |
| Keywords | order, SOV, SVO, VSO, topic, focus, secondary topic, double object, causee, recipient, benefactive, 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: 190 |
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