Re: Greenberg's Word Order Universals

Marcus Smith <smithma@...> wrote:
>
> Here are Greenberg's Word Order Universals from his book Universals of
> Language.
    Since Gladilatian has no verbs, a lot of these will not be relevant.
Of those which are:

> 1. In declarative sentences with nominal subject and object, the dominant
> order is almost always one in which the subject precedes the object.
    The topic usually preceeds the comment, but that is not a hard and fast
rule.  I see by the examples page on my website that the word corresponding
to the English subject usually preceeds the word corresponding to the
English object.

> 2. In languages with prepositions, the genitive almost always follows the
> governing noun, while in languages with postpositions it almost always
> precedes.
    Glad. has prepositions, and while it doesn't have a true genitive, the
closest equivalents precede the governing noun.

> 10. Question particles or affixes, specified in position by reference to a
> particular word in the sentence, almost always follow that word.
    Glad. is an exception; it has question prefixes.

> 14. In conditional statements, the conditional clause precedes the
> conclusion as the normal order in all languages.
    This is true for Gladilatian.

> 18. When the descriptive adjective precedes the noun, the demonstrative
> and the numeral, with overwhelmingly more than chance frequency, do
> likewise.
> 19. When the [g]eneral rule is that the descriptive adjective follows,
> there may be a minority of adjectives which usually precede, but when the
> general rule is that descriptive adjective precede, there are no
> exceptions.
    All adjectives precede the noun.

> 20. When any or all of the items -- demonstratives, numeral, and
> descriptive adjective -- precede the noun, they are always found in that
> order.  If they follow, the order is either the same or its exact
> opposite.
    Either order is possible, but the meanings are not quite the same.  From
_hzut_, "seven", _fne_, "black", and _zula_, "book" we can form either
_hzut_fne_zula_, _fne_hzut_zula_, _za_hzut_we_fne_zula_, or _za_fne_we_hzut_
_zula.  They all mean "seven black books".  The latter two are more formal
(_za_ ... _we_ means "both ... and").  The form _hzut_fne_zula_, however,
implies that you have books of several colors, and seven of them are black,
while _fne_hzut_zula_ implies that you have just seven books, which happen
to be black.
    I have to clarify adjective order on my website.  I'm just beginning to
understand it myself.

> 22. If in comparisons of superiority the only order or one of the
> alternative orders is standard-marker-adjective, then the language is
> postpositional.  With overwhelmingly more than chance frequency, if the
> only order is adjective-marker-standard, the language is prepositional.
    Gladilatian violates this.  It's prepositional and the order is marker-
standard-marker-adjective.

> 23. If in apposition the proper noun usually precedes the common noun,
> then the language is one in which the governing noun precedes its
> dependent genitive.  With much more than chance frequency, if the common
> noun usually precedes the proper noun, the dependent genitive precedes its
> governing noun.
    The genitive, such as it is, precedes its governing noun, but there's no
stict rule as to the order of apposites.  I believe the common noun would
usually come first, though, so this is a qualified yes.

> 24.  If the relative expression precedes the noun either as the only
> construction or as an alternative construction, either the language is
> postpositional or the adjective precedes the noun or both.
    This is true.  Even though it's prepositional, both adjectives and
relative expressions precede the noun.

> 34. No language has a trial number unless is has a dual.  No language has
> a dual unless it has a plural.
> 35. There is no language in which the plural does not have some nonzero
> allomorphs, whereas there are languages in which the singular is expressed
> only by zero. The dual and the trial are almost never expressed by zero.
    Glad. has prefixes for the numbers zero through six, as well as a
general plural prefix.

> 42. All languages have pronominal categories involving at least three
> persons and two numbers.
    Gladilatian does not distinguish pronouns from nouns, but it has enough
pronoun equivalents for cover this.

    Final tally:
True or mostly true:    8
False or mostly false:  4

 ===========================================================================

             Dennis Paul Himes    <>    dennis@himes.connix.com
             homepage: http://www.connix.com/~dennis/dennis.htm
        Gladilatian page: http://www.connix.com/~dennis/glad/lang.htm

Disclaimer: "True, I talk of dreams; which are the children of an idle
brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy; which is as thin of substance as
the air."                      - Romeo & Juliet, Act I Scene iv Verse 96-99