In all languages with over 60% order overall, VS word order is statistically correlated with temporally sequenced clauses. In languages with less than 40% VS order, there does not seem to be any correlation between sequencing and word order; in languages with between 40% and 60% VS order, if there is correlation, it will be relatively weak.
Standardized
In all languages with over 60% order overall, VS word order is statistically correlated with temporally sequenced clauses. In languages with less than 40% VS order, there does not seem to be any correlation between sequencing and word order; in languages with between 40% and 60% VS order, if there is correlation, it will be relatively weak.
Keywords
order, VS, temporal sequencing
Domain
syntax
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
statistical
Basis
Tzotzil, Chorti (both Mayan), Early Biblical Hebrew (Semitic, Afro-Asiatic), 17th century Spanish, Rumanian (both Italic, Indo-European), Old English (Germanic, Indo-European)
1. A TEMPORALLY SEQUENCED CLAUSE is one which advances the time reference of a narrative, e.g. ‘I was reading in the library. This guy walked up to me and asked me if we had met somewhere. I looked at him carefully. He had a long nose …’ The temporally sequenced clauses here are those with the verbs ‘walked’, ‘asked’, and ‘looked’. The other clauses are unsequenced: ‘reading’ is progressive, ‘met’ is perfect/anterior, having taken place earlier, and ‘had’ is stative. Habitual clauses (‘I read in the library every day’) is another type of unsequenced clause. (Myhill 1992: 265)2. This concept of “temporally sequenced clause” is equivalent to what Labov calls a NARRATIVE CLAUSE and what Hopper calls a FOREGROUNDED CLAUSE.
1. A TEMPORALLY SEQUENCED CLAUSE is one which advances the time reference of a narrative, e.g. ‘I was reading in the library. This guy walked up to me and asked me if we had met somewhere. I looked at him carefully. He had a long nose …’ The temporally sequenced clauses here are those with the verbs ‘walked’, ‘asked’, and ‘looked’. The other clauses are unsequenced: ‘reading’ is progressive, ‘met’ is perfect/anterior, having taken place earlier, and ‘had’ is stative. Habitual clauses (‘I read in the library every day’) is another type of unsequenced clause. (Myhill 1992: 265)2. This concept of “temporally sequenced clause” is equivalent to what Labov calls a NARRATIVE CLAUSE and what Hopper calls a FOREGROUNDED CLAUSE.