Universal #1831

Legacy number: 1831

 Number  1826
 Original  If a language is an SOV language, then nominalizations are the most likely to show the ModifierNoun syntactic pattern, other possessives are next on the likelihood scale, while relative clauses and embedded adjectives are lower on that scale.
 Standardized  IF basic word order is SOV, THEN modifiers tend to come before nouns, most likely in nominalizations and with continuously decreasing likelihood with possessives, with relative clauses, and with attributive adjectives.
 Keywords  order, SOV, verb, subject, object, nominalization, noun, modifier, possessive, adjective, relative clause
 Domain  syntax
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 Basis  Bantu languages (with a special reference to Swahili), Romance, Germanic languages, Amharic, (Semitic, Afro-Asiatic)
 Source  Givón 1971: 405

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Discussion
Notes
1. This generalization is inspired by Greenberg’s universal (here #107) that OV languages tend to have ModifierNoun order in NPs. 2. See #1832.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
1. This generalization is inspired by Greenberg's universal (here <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=107"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">) that OV languages tend to have ModifierNoun order in NPs.

2. See <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1832"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">