Re: Greenberg's universals for SVO languages & Caos Pidginruff-sketch

> From: Marcus Smith
>
> Tom Wier wrote:
>
> >> -- case is less common, and when present, usually doesn't not follow an
> >> ergative pattern.
> >
> >Right -- although I believe the figure is about 25% that show some
> ergativity,
> >whether morphological (like Basque) or syntactic (like Dyirbal).
>
> According to Comrie, Dyirbal is not SVO.  The examples Comrie
> gives of Basque
> do not show an SVO pattern either.
Actually, word order in Dyirbal is remarkably free, but there does exist a
statistically favored order in which ergative NPs precede the verb and
dative NPs follow the verb.


David

David E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
    dbell@graywizard.net
    www.graywizard.net

"Wisdom begins in wonder." - Socrates