Re: R: Re: Greenberg's universals
| From: | J Matthew Pearson <pearson@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, September 13, 2000, 18:46 |
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> >Yesterday I borrowed Greenberg's 'Language Universals' (1966 by Mouton &
> >Co.) from Como's library. I read it all yesterday evening, but there were no
> >hints to word-order universals (those like 'VSO langs generally do not have
> >articles'). Were these universals published only in 'Universals of Language'
> >(1963)?
Just a quick footnote to this thread: Who says that VSO languages generally do
not have articles? That's clearly false. Celtic, Semitic, Philippine, Salishan,
Polynesian, and Mayan languages--the usual VSO suspects, in other words--*all*
have articles or determiners of some kind. In fact, if I had to formulate a
universal it would be that VSO languages generally *do* have articles.
Matt.