Re: Right-Branching vs. Left-Branching

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob Haden" <magwich78@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 2:14 PM
Subject: Re: Right-Branching vs. Left-Branching


> On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 13:55:25 -0700, Heather Fleming <hfleming@PLANET-
> SAVE.COM> wrote:
>
> >Aha. Now it comes back to me. If you go by number of individual
languages,
> >SVO comes out ahead. But if you go by language GROUPS then SOV wins by a
> >long shot.
>
> What source(s) do you have for that?  Also, how many non-IE SVO languages
> were originally SOV or something else, and then became SVO through IE
> influence?
>
> >Did a search and found it near the bottom of the article. Yep, that's all
> >he says. "Right-branching languages are inherently easier to parse for
> >both computers and humans."
> >
> >Lacking any kind of proof, I would think that this is a purely personal
> >viewpoint. It may be accurate for computers, but probably because
computer
> >programming languages are mostly invented by English speakers or at least
> >speakers of primarily right-branching languages (I'm guessing), and read
> >left to right.
>
> I think that syntax may be the hardest thing for one to change when
> learning another language with different syntax, probably because it's a
> pattern.  Look at Latin and German -- they're considered "difficult" to
> learn by native English-speakers because of their canonical SOV
word-order.

Actually, German is (usually) a V2 language

In simple sentences  eg.'the man eats food'(Der Mann isst Essen), it is SVO.
However, when clauses become involved, it is more complicated.  The first
thing to remember is that the participle or infinitive(I forget what these
forms are called together) comes last. eg.'the man ate food'(Der Mann hat
Essen gegessen).  The next thing is that the verb is the second 'concept',
as I learnt it.  The third rule is that subordinating conjunctions violate
the second rule, and send the verb to the end.  If there is a participle,
that comes before the verb.  A demonstration of rules 2 and 3 together 'If
the man is hungry, he eats food'(Wenn der Mann Hunger hat, isst er Essen).
So, I suppose that makes German variously SVO, VSO, and SOV.  I hope someone
can correct my broken German.