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Re: VOS

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Friday, April 28, 2000, 3:07
daniel andreasson wrote:
> AFMCL Rinya, I have taken Dixon's words literally. Rinya's word order > is (ABS) - VERB - (ERG).
W doesn't have a fixed word order, except that the verb is always initial (with a few exceptions - mostly idiomatic combinations of a noun plus labí, to give). However, there is a tendency to place a noun of higher animacy first, thus, noun-erg-abs is more common than noun-abs-erg.
> Dyirbal also have absolutive before ergative.
Interesting. I suspected that might be the case, but it just seems (to me) counter-intuitive. I guess that's my native language coming into play. -- "If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God!" - Ralph Waldo Emerson ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTailor