Object-initial languages

[Noel Rude]

Ah ... science ... yes but there're two ways to qualify: methodologically or
by association.  And so the Many Worlders and the tellers of Darwinian
just-so stories qualify because of their association with disciplines where
rigor resides, whereas historians and linguists (and others) who might
formulate risky hypotheses and test with real data don't qualify when
methodology doesn't count.

Noel


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ngoni Chipere" <n.chipere at READING.AC.UK>
To: <FUNKNET at listserv.rice.edu>
Sent: Friday, October 25, 2002 7:20 AM
Subject: Re: Object-initial languages


Herb,

In answer to your question, word order variation does seem much more
constrained in subordinate clauses, at least as far as I can trust my
intuition. The main word order in subordinate clauses seems to be SVO, which
is also the main word order in main clauses - though I suspect my intuition
is heavily influenced by the sorts of sentences that I encountered in
children's books while learning to read! I haven't studied language typology
so I can't answer your second question intelligently, unless you ask me
about specific features.

I don't have any theoretical interest in this thread, by the way, though,
from a purely methodological point of view, I fully agree with Dan that
corpus data should be used to eliminate the subjective element as much as
possible in making linguistic generalisations (this is not a comment on
anything you said, Herb). I look forward to the day when linguistics is a
science, as opposed to a discipline which fondly likes to think it's one!

best,

Ngoni


> Dear Ngoni,
>
> Lots of languages can do this sort of thing, but still they exhibit a
default word order.  This typically shows up in subordinate clauses, where
there tends to be less word order variation.  Does Shona allow the same
flexibility in relative clauses or adverbial subordinate clauses?  How do
other aspects of word order typology manifest themselves in Shona?
>
> Herb Stahlke
> Ball State University
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ngoni Chipere [mailto:n.chipere at READING.AC.UK]
> Sent: Thu 10/24/2002 5:25 AM
> To: FUNKNET at listserv.rice.edu
> Cc:
> Subject: Re: Object-initial languages
>
>
>
> Dear Ron,
>
> My native language - Shona - has a rich morphology which allows great
> variations in word order. It's quite possible to have
>
> VOS
> e.g. Anonwa doro Tendai
>        He-drinks beer Tendai, i.e. Tendai drinks beer.
>
> OSV
> e.g. Doro Tendai anonwa
>         Beer Tendai he-drinks, i.e. Tendai drinks beer.
>
> OVS
> e.g. Doro anonwa Tendai
>       Beer he-drinks Tendai, again meaning Tendai drinks beer.
>
> best,
>
> Ngoni
>
> *********************************************************
> Dr Ngoni Chipere
> Research Fellow
> School of Education, University of Reading
> Bulmershe Court, Earley, Reading, RG6 1HY, UK
> tel 0118 9875123 ext 4943
>
>
> > Dear colleagues,
> > I his recent textbook, Andrew Carnie (2002) Syntax: A Generative
> > Introduction, p. 18-19, says:
> > "Oversimplifying slightly, most languages put the order of elements in
> > a sentence in one of the following word orders: SVO, SOV, VSO. A few
> > languages use VOS. No (or almost no)(6) languages use OSV, OVS."
> > Note (6) reads:
> > "This is a matter of some debate. Derbyshire (1985) has claimed that the
> > language Hixkaryana has object initial order."
> > Obviously, the very definition of the term subject (and object) may
> > depend on theoretical considerations (ergative languages?), and so would
> > the idea of the unmarked or default order.
> > I am interested in functionally-oriented comments on this issue. Are
> > there really no object initial languages?
> > Thanks
> > Roni
> > ====================================
> >                  Dr. Ron Kuzar
> > Address:   Department of English Language and Literature
> >                  University of Haifa
> >                  IL-31905 Haifa, Israel
> > Office:       +972-4-824-9826, fax: +972-4-824-9711
> > Home:       +972-2-6414780, Cellular: +972-5-481-9676
> > Email:        kuzar at research.haifa.ac.il
> > Site:ý          http://research.haifa.ac.il/~kuzar
> > ====================================
> >
>
>
>