Universal 1114: VO ⇒ CompS;
- Original
- VO languages are exceptionlessly Comp-initial.
OV languages exemplify both final complementizers and initial complementizers. - Standardized
- IF basic word order is VO, THEN complementizers are clause-initial.
OR, BY CONTRAPOSITION:
IF complementizers are clause-final, THEN basic word order is OV. - Keywords
- order, complementizer, VO, OV
- Domain
- syntax
- Type
- implication
- Status
- achronic
- Quality
- statistical
- Basis
- languages surveyed in Hawkins 1990
- Source
- Hawkins 1990: 225
- Counterexamples
Dryer 1992: 101-102 (543 language sample): “While both initial and final complementizers are found in OV languages (cf. Dryer 1980, Hawkins 1990: 225), complementizers in VO languages seem invariably to be initial; in fact, it may be an exceptionless universal that final complementizers are found only in OV languages. If so, then final complementizers are clearly more common in OV languages than they are in VO languages, and complementizers are therefore verb patterners, while the Ss they combine with are object patterners.”