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Re: Greenberg's Word Order Universals

From:Nik <fortytwo@...>
Date:Thursday, September 14, 2000, 23:00
Marcus Smith wrote:
> 6. All languages with dominant VSO order have SVO as an alternative or as the > only alternative basic order.
All? There are none that are purely VSO? Because Watakassí is purely verb-initial.
> 10. Question particles or affixes, specified in position by reference to a > particular word in the sentence, almost always follow that word. Such > particles do not occur in languages with dominant order VSO.
Oy! Another violation - Watakassí uses a clitic -bu for yes/no questions.
> 35. There is no language in which the plural does not have some nonzero > allomorphs
Does it count if the plural is merely "absorbed" into the word? For instance, the plural of titluníi (hand [of a woman]) is titluníi. The underlying forms are ti-tluníi and tit-tluníi-i, but geminates are degeminated before glides and l, and there are no triple vowels.
> The dual and the trial are almost never expressed by zero.
"Almost never"? There are langs wherein they are expressed by zero? Interesting. -- Dievas dave dantis; Dievas duos duonos God gave teeth; God will give bread - Lithuanian proverb ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTailor