Re: "Free" word order (was Re: Greek definite article (was Re: Addendum: a holy spirit))
| From: | Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Tuesday, December 14, 2004, 17:58 |
|---|
Hallo!
On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 08:06:52 +0000,
Chris Bates <chris.maths_student@...> wrote:
> 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? And if focus/topic/other
> factor determine your word order, have you worked out the rules in
> detail? What's the focus position? Topic position (if there is one)? etc
Old Albic is indeed a language with "free" word order; however,
the basic, unmarked order is VSO. This underlying VSO order is
often overridden by the topic being moved to the first position
in the sentence. But actually, any order is possible, and may
be encountered in poetry. Old Albic even allows to move adjectives,
possessors, etc. away from the head noun (which they normally follow),
as these agree with the head noun in gender, number and case, but
that is only rarely done and if at all, mostly in poetry.
Greetings,
Jörg.
Reply