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Re: Nominative to ergative shift

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Saturday, March 20, 1999, 19:07
Matt Pearson wrote:
> Not at all. Many VSO languages (I'm thinking particularly of Polynesian and > > Mayan languages) allow VOS as an alternate word order, which could become > dominant over time.
Well, VSO as the EXCLUSIVE or MAIN word order is rare, languages where case is marked would be expected to have alternate word orders. -- "It's bad manners to talk about ropes in the house of a man whose father was hanged." - Irish proverb http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/X-Files http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/Books.html ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-name: NikTailor