Universal #377

Legacy number: 377

 Number  376
 Original  If a language has topic markers, then these will always be postpositional and basic word order in the language will almost always be SOV.
 Standardized  IF there are specialized topic markers, THEN these will always be postpositional and basic word order will almost always be SOV.
 Formula  topic markers ⇒ SOV
 Keywords  topic, order, SOV
 Domain  inflection, syntax
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical (first conjunct), absolute (second conjunct)
 Basis  a sample of 30 languages, see Gundel 1988: 210
 Source  Gundel 1988: 231

← Back to Universals Archive

Discussion
Notes
Is nominative case, IE style, a topic marker?
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
Is nominative case, IE style, a topic marker?