Re: Verb-second ... verb-penultimate languages?

(This post is about V2 and Verb-Initial languages, rather than "Verb-
Penultimate" languages.)

On Sun, 23 Apr 2006 09:36:42 +0100, R A Brown <ray@...>
wrote:

[snip]

>I would reword my earlier comments. What I perhaps should have said is
>that in V2 languages, the 'normal' unmarked word order is:
>SUBJECT + VERB + REST OF SENTENCE
>but when a topic is emphasized (either because it is a new topic or an
>established one is re-introduced) the order is:
>TOPIC + VERB + SUBJECT + REST OF SENTENCE
>
>Even that is almost certainly an oversimplification and I suspect a
>whole tome could be written on the matter. ....
[snip]

(I had earlier replied off-list to someone who pointed out that I would
have difficulty making a single conlang be both verb-initial and verb-
second.  Part of my explanation was that I had mistyped "conlang"
for "conlangs"; but there's more, and I want to ask about it now.)

I am thinking of constructing one or a few conlangs in which the "unmarked"
order is verb-initial, and the "marked" order is V2 -- with
the "pragmatically most salient" constituent moved before the verb.

This would be a lot like what Ray just described for Germanic V2 languages,
but with the "unmarked" order being verb-initial instead of SVO.

How realistic is that?  Is it ANADEW?

I am contemplating a situation in which the "unmarked" order would be
noticeably less common than the aggregate sum total of all of the
various "marked" orders, although the "unmarked" order would be noticeably
more common than each individual "marked" order.

Is that realistic, or not?  Is it ANADEW?

---

Thanks,

eldin

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