Universal #495

Legacy number: 495

 Number  493
 Original  With well more than chance frequency, when question particles or affixes are specified in position by reference to the sentence as a whole, if initial, such elements are found in prepositional languages, and, if final, in postpositional.
 Standardized  When question particles or affixes are specified in position by reference to the sentence as a whole,
IF they are initial, THEN there are prepositions, and
IF they are final, THEN there are postpositions.
 Formula  QSent ⇒ prepositions;
SentQ ⇒ postpositions
 Keywords  order, sentence type, interrogative, question particle, question affix, preposition, postposition
 Domain  inflection, syntax
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 Basis  30 languages of Greenberg 1963 sample
 Source  Greenberg 1963: 82, #9

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Discussion
Counterexamples
Yoruba (Defoid, Benue-Congo), Thai (Daic) have final Q particles and are prepositional; Lithuanian (Baltic, Indo-European) has initial Q particles and is postpositional (Greenberg 1963: 81);Cora (Uto-Aztecan) has initial Q particles, but postpositions;Yaitepec Chatino, Peñoles Mixtec, Trique (all Oto-Manguean), and Huave (isolate) have final Q particles but are prepositional;Isthmus Zapotec (Oto-Manguean) has an optional initial Q particle, obligatory final Q particle and is prepositional (Pickett 1983: 540)
Notes
1. This is generally in accord with Ultan’s findings, except that, of the languages sampled for this feature with question particle initial or enclitic to the sentence-initial constituent, 24% are postpositional (Ultan 1978: 227, fn 12).2. Note also the discussion in Joseph 1992: 32-37 about the relevance of Greenberg’s statistical universal.3. See also ##671, 491. #491 can be derived by transitivity from ##671, 495.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
1. This is generally in accord with Ultan's findings, except that, of the languages sampled for this feature with question particle initial or enclitic to the sentence-initial constituent, 24% are postpositional (Ultan 1978: 227, fn 12).

2. Note also the discussion in Joseph 1992: 32-37 about the relevance of Greenberg's statistical universal.

3. See also <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=671"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">, <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=491"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">
<a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=491"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0"> can be derived by transitivity from <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=671"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">, <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=495"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">.