Universal 376: topic markers ⇒ SOV

Universal 376: topic markers ⇒ SOV

Original

If a language has topic markers, then these will always be postpositional and basic word order in the language will almost always be SOV.

Standardized

IF there are specialized topic markers, THEN these will always be postpositional and basic word order will almost always be SOV.

Keywords

topic, order, SOV

Domain

inflection, syntax

Type

implication

Status

achronic

Quality

statistical (first conjunct), absolute (second conjunct)

Basis

a sample of 30 languages, see Gundel 1988: 210

Source

Gundel 1988: 231

Counterexamples