Universal #438
Legacy number: 438
| Number | 437 |
| Original | Verb-initial order and lack of any determinate or stated order favour head-marking; verb-medial and verb-final order favour dependent-marking. |
| Standardized | IF basic order is verb-initial or free, THEN head-marking is favoured, and vice versa. IF basic order is verb-medial or verb-final, THEN dependent-marking is favoured, and vice versa. |
| Formula | verb-initial & free order ⇔ head-marking; verb-medial v. verb-final ⇔ dependent-marking |
| Keywords | order, verb-initial, verb-final, verb-medial, head-marking, dependent-marking |
| Domain | inflection, syntax |
| Type | mutual implication |
| Status | achronic |
| Quality | statistical |
| Basis | 60 languages sample of Nichols 1986, sample of Nichols 1992 |
| Source | Nichols 1986: 81, Nichols 1992: 3.4 |
Discussion
Notes
Favourability in Nichols’s sense appears to be mutual: “... head-marking morphology favours verb-initial order, while dependent-marking morphology disfavours it. This appears to have a functional motivation: if the verb comes first in a head-marking language, then the grammatical relations (which are marked on the verb) are established at the outset; if the nouns come first in a language having at least some dependent-marked morphology, then the grammatical relations (which are marked on the nouns) are established at the outset. Establishing grammatical relations at the beginning must be communicatively efficacious, in that it streamlines the hearer’s processing.” (Nichols 1986: 81ff).
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"... head-marking morphology favours verb-initial order, while dependent-marking morphology disfavours it. This appears to have a functional motivation: if the verb comes first in a head-marking language, then the grammatical relations (which are marked on the verb) are established at the outset; if the nouns come first in a language having at least some dependent-marked morphology, then the grammatical relations (which are marked on the nouns) are established at the outset. Establishing grammatical relations at the beginning must be communicatively efficacious, in that it streamlines the hearer's processing." (Nichols 1986: 81ff).