Universal 495: VSO ⇒ no Q positioned relative to a particular word in the sentence
- Original
- Question particles or affixes, when specified in position by reference to a particular word in the sentence, almost always follow that word. Such particles do not occur in languages with dominant order VSO.
- Standardized
- When the position of question particles or affixes is specified relative to a particular word in the sentence, they almost always follow that word.
IF dominant order is VSO, THEN there are no such question particles or affixes.
- Keywords
- order, sentence type, interrogative, VSO, question marker
- Domain
- inflection, syntax
- Type
- implication
- Status
- achronic
- Quality
- statistical
- Basis
- 30 languages of Greenberg 1963 sample
- Source
- Greenberg 1963: 82, #10
- Counterexamples
- Coatzospan Mixtec (Oto-Manguean), which is VSO but has the Q particle suffixed to the constituent being questioned (Pickett 1983: 537).Agta (W. Malayo-Polynesian, Austronesian), Chontal (Hokan), Diola (Atlantic, Niger-Congo), Scottish Gaelic (Celtic, Indo-European) are all VSO and do make use of Q particles (Ultan 1978c: 232, who is not, however, very specific as to these Q particles being positioned relative to a particular word).
