Re: Lexical determination of word order

staving John Vertical:
>[background snipped]
>>I think that in this language word order will be determined by some
>>feature of the lexical content of the sentence. Any idea what feature
>>this might be?
>>
>>Pete
>
>Here's a few ideas I can think of:
>- The TAM of the verb (most likely tense or, more boringly,
>imperativ<>declarativ<>interrogativ)
>- The arguments' location on the Animacy Hierarchy (see the discussion on
>"hierarchic alignment" a few weeks ago)
>- Evidentiality
>
I came up with the following system shortly after writing the message.

There are 4 noun classes, based on which of the various dialects a noun has
been derived from.

I Indefinite nouns are unmarked, definite nouns are marked.
II Definite nouns are unmarked, indefinite nouns are marked.
III All nouns of this class are marked for definiteness or indefiniteness.
IV Definite subjects and indefinite objects are unmarked, indefinite
subjects and definite objects are marked.

The following rules determine the default word order.

If the subject is a class I noun, the word order is VSO.
If not, and the object is a class II noun, the word order is SOV.
Otherwise, the word order is SVO.

Pete