Subject-final languages are generally prepositional rather than postpositional.
Standardized
IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN there will be prepositions.
Keywords
order, subject, object, preposition
Domain
syntax
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
statistical
Basis
Malagasy, Batak [Toba Dialect], Fijian, Gilbertese (all Malayo-Polynesian), Tzeltal (Mayan), Otomi (Oto-Manguean), Ineseño Chumash (Hokan), Baure (Arawakan), Tzotzil, Kekchi (both Mayan), Tsou (Formosan, Austronesian), although the last three languages are not surveyed in the paper
Baure (Arawakan): the adpositions which occur as bound morphemes are clearly postpositions, not prepositions. The postpositional system in Baure seems to be of limited productivity. (Keenan 1978: 291-292)
1. By SUBJECT-FINAL languages Keenan means any language in which full noun phrase subjects must follow noun phrase direct objects in the pragmatically less marked sentence types (which contain both subjects and direct objects) of the language. Sentences which are pragmatically less marked place the fewest restrictions on their contexts of appropriate use. 2. Cf. Rijkhoff’s claim (#448): If a language has verb-initial word order, then it has prepositions or case prefixes. All languages in Keenan’s sample are of VOS order, i.e. verb-initial. Therefore it is unclear whether the property of having prepositions is dependent on the verb position or on the subject/object order.
1. By SUBJECT-FINAL languages Keenan means any language in which full noun phrase subjects must follow noun phrase direct objects in the pragmatically less marked sentence types (which contain both subjects and direct objects) of the language. Sentences which are pragmatically less marked place the fewest restrictions on their contexts of appropriate use. 2. Cf. Rijkhoff’s claim (#448): If a language has verb-initial word order, then it has prepositions or case prefixes. All languages in Keenan’s sample are of VOS order, i.e. verb-initial. Therefore it is unclear whether the property of having prepositions is dependent on the verb position or on the subject/object order.