Re: Announcing the open beta of CALS

Carsten:�<<�Also, in my lang for example it makes no sense to speak of VSO,�because the
topicalized NP is marked on the verb with an anaphoric�particle and the NP
proper, which can be any of A, P, or Obl, stays�in its regular place. How am
I supposed to categorize the respective�word orders then? Is "S" overridden
so that I get VO(X), VO-Prep, VO-�NRel and VO-AdjN nevertheless?�
>>��Two things. First, for a language like Cebuano (one of
those�languages of the Philippine type), there's the following note in�the
WALS database (note that with each feature it links to a�more in-depth
description on the WALS site):��"While there is a question as to which of
the two arguments in (3)�should be considered a subject (or whether neither
or both should),�in both types of clauses the verb normally comes first,
followed by�the A, and then the P. Hence, by the use of subject and
object�assumed for this map, Cebuano is treated as a VSO language."��In
other words, for the purposes of this site, Cebuano is VSO.�There are a *lot*
of "for the purposes of this site, X language is�Y" on here. After all, the
project is concerned more with surveying�as many languages as possible to get
at some generalizations.�If it got bogged down in the details too much, there
might be�no interesting generalizations.��Second, there's also the "No
Dominant Order" option you�might consider. I've found that the descriptions
on the WALS�website are pretty good, in this regard. They make it
clear�that they have made an exception, and taken, say, two types�of
different languages, and shoved them into one label, for�the sake of the
survey. As long as they make this clear, though�(which they do), I feel that
it isn't malicious. Here's what the�entry says about "No Dominant
Order":��"The scattering of this type partly reflects the fact that this
is�not a homogeneous type, since it mixes languages with highly
flexible�order with languages which have more rigid order but where there
are�two dominant orders."��Now, if a linguist were to come upon Ayeri in
the wild, I'll�tell you exactly what they would do. They would see
that,�with the way the grammar is, there could be no way to�classify it via
V, S and O, so what they would do, then, is�take a corpus, and see what the
most *common* word�orders are. Once that was accomplished, if there was
a�clear winner, that would become Ayeri's dominant word�order in a survey
like this. If there were two or more that�were dead even as 1 and 2, or 1, 2
and 3, they would probably�mark "No Dominant Order".��That's my two
cents.
:)��-David�*******************************************************************�"A
male love inevivi i'ala'i oku i ue pokulu'ume o heki a."�"No eternal reward
will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."��-Jim
Morrison��http://dedalvs.free.fr/��On Jun 8, 2008, at 8∞02 AM,
Carsten Becker wrote:��> I've started to add Ayeri.�>�> Matahaniya ang
And Rosta <and.rosta@...>:�>�>> Not sure if this counts as a bug:�>�>
Also, in my lang for example it makes no sense to speak of VSO,�> because the
topicalized NP is marked on the verb with an anaphoric�> particle and the NP
proper, which can be any of A, P, or Obl, stays�> in its regular place. How
am I supposed to categorize the�> respective word orders then? Is "S"
overridden so that I get VO(X),�> VO-Prep, VO-NRel and VO-AdjN
nevertheless?�>�> Carsten�>�> --�> Venena, Lahang 22, 2317 ya
14:30:03 pd�> Sunday, June 8, 2008 at 04:56:39 pm�

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