Universal #1634

Legacy number: 1634

 Number  1629
 Original  If the language has the basic order “focus-before-topic”, then the secondary topic would follow the focus.
Correspondingly, in languages where object precedes subject, causee, recipient, and benefactive follow the patient in double object constructions.
 Standardized  IF basic order is Focus-before-Topic, THEN the secondary topic will follow the focus.

Correspondingly:
IF object precedes subject in a basic word order, THEN causee, recipient, and benefactive [being secondary topics] follow the patient in double object constructions.
 Keywords  order, VOS, OVS, OSV, topic, focus, secondary topic, 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: 190-191

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Discussion
Notes
No examples of double object constructions under OSV have been found.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
No examples of double object constructions under OSV have been found.