Word Order Correlates

Thursday 21 June 2018, 16:00 to 18:00
Invité: 
Edward Keenan (UCLA, invité Labex EFL)
Organisation: 
Heather Burnett (LLF)
Lieu: 

ODG – Salle 311

Edward Keenan (UCLA)
Word Order Correlates

VF (Verb Final):  OV (Object+Verb) in pragmatically neutral simplex sentences.  Most common type: SOV, rare OVS.  Such Ls contrast with VI (Verb Initial):  Most common type VSO but some VOS.  Correlates: Pre-/Post- position (joy-with vs with joy), Possessum/Possessor (father of this boy vs this boy’s father); suffixal/prefixal verbal morphology (verb / Tense/Aspect/Mood).  Main V /Modal (able)/Aspect (begin)/Intent (try)/Desire (want).  Correlates with case marking systems, position of subordinate and coordinate conjunctions, resumptive pronouns, verb second. 

Readings

  • Keenan/Keenan & Kalin: The Verb Final Typology
  • Keenan/Keenan & Kalin: The Verb Initial Typology
  • Munro, Pamela. 2013. Word order. In The Bloomsbury Companion to Syntax  Pp 118 – 142.
  • Dryer, Matthew. 2007. Word order. In Language Typology and Syntactic Description. Vol 1, 2nd edition. Tim Shopen (ed) CUP.