Universal #98

Legacy number: 98

 Number  98
 Original  If a language has Postp word order, then if the adverb precedes the adjective within the adjective phrase, the standard of comparison precedes the adjective.
 Standardized  IF there are postpositions, THEN IF the adverb precedes the adjective within the adjective phrase, THEN the standard of comparison precedes the adjective.
 Formula  Postp ⇒ (Adv Adj ⇒ Stand Mark Adj)
 Keywords  order, postposition, adjective, adverb, comparison
 Domain  syntax
 Type  nested implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical (according to author absolute)
 Basis  sample of 350 languages in Hawkins 1983
 Source  Hawkins 1983: 88

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Discussion
Counterexamples
Yagua (Peba-Yaguan): postpositional, adverb precedes adjective, but the standard of comparison follows the phrase which encodes the quality compared (Payne 1985: 465). Cherokee (Iroquoian), Northern Tepehuan (Tepiman, Uto-Atztecan): Postp & Intens Adj & Stand Mark Adj (Dryer 2000).
Notes
1. Dryer 1988: 198: “There is no clear evidence for the correlation between Adposition-Noun and Adjective-Noun order.”2. Since the 1990s, Hawkins proposes alternative explanations of his universals (see e.g. Hawkins 1993: 234).
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
1. Dryer 1988: 198: "There is no clear evidence for the correlation between Adposition-Noun and Adjective-Noun order."

2. Since the 1990s, Hawkins proposes alternative explanations of his universals (see e.g. Hawkins 1993: 234).