Universal 490:
- Original
- All languages with dominant VSO order have SVO as an alternative or as the only alternative order.
- Standardized
- IF dominant order is VSO, THEN SVO will be an alternative or the only alternative order.
- Keywords
- order, SOV, VSO, VOS
- Domain
- syntax
- Type
- implication
- Status
- achronic
- Quality
- absolute
- Basis
- 30 languages of Greenberg 1963 sample
- Source
- Greenberg 1963: 79, #6
- Counterexamples
1. Cf. a more restrictive claim by Dezsö concerning languages with dominant VSO order (#1339): If VSO is a dominant order, then SVO or VOS are alternative orders.2. Cf. a similar claim by Keenan (#1517): SVO is a grammatical (although marked) word order in all VOS languages.