Re: "Free" word order (was Re: Greek definite article (was Re: Addendum: a holy spirit))

 --- Chris Bates <chris.maths_student@...>
schrieb:
> Don't you just love "free" word order languages? Out
> of interest, how many people have current conlangs
> with word order determined by pragmatics rather than
> a fixed word order?
Gi-nàin allows the elements of a sentence to be
shuffled around at will for emphatic purposes (and
this is done very commonly), though it tends very
strongly towards an SOV word order.

And yes, I just adore free word order :).

> And if focus/topic/other factor determine your word
> order, have you worked out the rules in detail?
Not in detail, but generally, I don't have to think
about the order of sentence components anymore. Weird.

> What's the focus position? Topic position (if there
> is one)? etc I have seen languages where people just
> specify "free" word order without giving any guide
> to how exactly the pragmatics affect the order,
> which really isn't helpful, since the rules applied
> do seem to vary from language to language in
> ordering the "free" arguments of the verb.
Topic position is generally the first element of the
sentence. Oblique arguments, in unmarked word order,
precede the verb directly. Essentially the same word
order as Latin, when I think about it, though Gi-nàin
uses postpositions almost exclusively.


	

	
		
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