Skip to content

Universal 1522: OS ⇒ ¬ relative pronoun

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1522: OS ⇒ ¬ relative pronoun

Original
Subject-final languages do not have relative pronouns.
Standardized
IF subject full noun phrases follow object full noun phrases, THEN there are no relative pronouns.
Keywords
order, subject, object, relative pronoun
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
Source
Keenan 1978b: 296, G-12
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    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. A RELATIVE PRONOUN is some kind of pronominal element which marks the grammatical role (subject, object, etc.) of the position relativized.

    1. May 2020

Comments are closed.