Universal 1628:
- Original
- If the language has the basic order “topic-before-focus”, then the secondary topic would precede the focus.
Correspondingly, in languages where subject precedes object, causee, recipient, and benefactive precede the patient in double object constructions. - Standardized
- IF basic order is Topic-before-Focus, THEN the secondary topic precedes the focus.
Correspondingly:
IF subject precedes object in a basic word order, THEN causee, recipient, and benefactive [being secondary topics] precede the patient in double object constructions. - Keywords
- order, SOV, SVO, VSO, topic, focus, secondary topic, double object, causee, recipient, benefactive, patient
- Domain
- syntax
- Type
- implication
- Status
- achronic
- Quality
- absolute
- Basis
- Object before Subject languages: VOS: Tzotzil (Mayan), Malagasy (Malayo-Polynesian), OVS: Hixkaryana (Carib), Pari (Nilotic, Nilo-Saharan), OSV: Hurrian (isolate), Kabardian (North Caucasian); Subject before Object languages: SOV: Tamil (Dravidian), Korean (Altaic), SVO: Kinyarwanda (Bantu, Niger-Congo), Dutch [in the main clause](Germanic, IE), VSO: Biblical Hebrew (Semitic, Afro-Asiatic)
- Source
- Polinsky 1995: 190
- Counterexamples
Why “correspondingly”?