Universal 232: rigid order & ¬case ⇒ definite article

Original: If constituent order is rigid and there is no case inflection, then there is a definite article, but not vice versa.
Standardized: IF constituent order is rigid and there is no case inflection, THEN there is a definite article, but not vice versa.
Keywords: order, case, definite article
Domain: inflection, syntax
Type: implication
Status: achronic
Quality: statistical
Basis: French, Latin, Italian, Spanish (all Italic), Russian, Polish, Church Slavonic, Serbo-Croatian (all Slavic), Ancient Greek (Greek, all IE), Hebrew (Semitic, Afro-Asiatic)
Source: Girard 1747, as interpreted in Plank 1999: 15

Counterexamples: Chinese (Sino-Tibetan), Vietnamese (Mon-Khmer, Austro-Asiatic) (Plank 1999)Middle Egyptian (Afro-Asiatic): constituent order is rigid in all chronolects of Egyptian, relics of case inflection (if any) exist solely in Old Egyptian, the definite article is fully developed only in Late Egyptian. (For an analysis of the definite article in Hebrew, Arabic as well as in the European languages as a result of borrowing, cf. Peust 1999b) (F. Kammerzell, p.c.)

FP