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<font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:12pt">I personally think the whole methodology of word order studies, as done in the Greenbergian framework, and even the use of “SOV” etc. in describing languages is unscientific (and so don’t teach it when I teach typology), but the work by this group is particularly problematic. As a regular reader of PNAS, though, it is actually not shocking to me that PNAS would publish such an article.<br>
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</b></span></font></font><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12pt">LaPolla, Randy J. 2002. "Problems of Methodology and Explanation in Word Order Universals Research ", <i>Dongfang Yuyan yu Wenhua (Languages and Cultures of the East), </i>ed. by Pan Wuyun, 204-237. Shanghai: Dongfang Chuban Zhongxin, Feb. 2002.<br>
<<a href="http://tibeto-burman.net/rjlapolla/papers/stwo.pdf">http://tibeto-burman.net/rjlapolla/papers/stwo.pdf</a>> <br>
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</font><font face="Times New Roman">LaPolla, Randy J. & Dory Poa. 2006. “On Describing Word Order”. <i>Catching Language: The Standing Challenge of Grammar Writing,</i> ed. by Felix Ameka, Alan Dench, & Nicholas Evans, 269-295. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.<br>
<<font color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://tibeto-burman.net/rjlapolla/papers/describingwo.pdf">http://tibeto-burman.net/rjlapolla/papers/describingwo.pdf</a></u></font>> <br>
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Randy<br>
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</span></font><font size="2"><span style="font-size:10pt">Randy J. LaPolla, PhD FAHA <br>
Professor (Chair) of Linguistics<br>
La Trobe University<br>
VIC 3086 AUSTRALIA<br>
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Personal site: <a href="http://tibeto-burman.net/rjlapolla/">http://tibeto-burman.net/rjlapolla/</a><br>
RCLT: <a href="http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt/">http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt/</a> <br>
The Tibeto-Burman Domain: <a href="http://tibeto-burman.net/">http://tibeto-burman.net/</a> <br>
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area: <a href="http://stedt.berkeley.edu/ltba/">http://stedt.berkeley.edu/ltba/</a><br>
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<hr align="CENTER" size="3" width="95%"><b>From: </b>Peter Bakker <<a href="linpb@hum.au.dk">linpb@hum.au.dk</a>><br>
<b>Reply-To: </b>Peter Bakker <<a href="linpb@hum.au.dk">linpb@hum.au.dk</a>><br>
<b>Date: </b>Sun, 16 Oct 2011 07:13:04 +1100<br>
<b>To: </b>"<a href="LINGTYP@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG">LINGTYP@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG</a>" <<a href="LINGTYP@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG">LINGTYP@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG</a>><br>
<b>Subject: </b>SOV original word order?<br>
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</span></font><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Dear typologists,<br>
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</font><font face="Times New Roman">This rather amazing news item:<br>
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</font><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/original-human-language-yoda-sounded-201403614.html">http://news.yahoo.com/original-human-language-yoda-sounded-201403614.html</a> <br>
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</font></span><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:11pt">appeared to be based on this article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:<br>
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</span></font><font size="4"><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:14pt"><b>The origin and evolution of word order<br>
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</span><font size="4"><span style="font-size:14pt"><b>Murray Gell-Mann</b></span></font><span style="font-size:12pt"> <<a href="http://www.pnas.org/search?author1=Murray+Gell-Mann&sortspec=date&submit=Submit">http://www.pnas.org/search?author1=Murray+Gell-Mann&sortspec=date&submit=Submit</a>> <br>
</span><font size="4"><span style="font-size:14pt"><b>Merritt Ruhlen</b></span></font><span style="font-size:12pt"> <<a href="http://www.pnas.org/search?author1=Merritt+Ruhlen&sortspec=date&submit=Submit">http://www.pnas.org/search?author1=Merritt+Ruhlen&sortspec=date&submit=Submit</a>> <br>
</span></font><ol><li><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><font size="4"><span style="font-size:14pt">Contributed by Murray Gell-Mann, August 26, 2011 (sent for review August 19, 2011)</span></font><span style="font-size:12pt"> <br>
</span></font></ol><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><font color="#333300"><font size="4"><span style="font-size:14pt"><b>Published online before print October 10, 2011, doi:10.1073/pnas.1113716108<br>
</b>PNAS<b> </b></span></font></font></font><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:11pt">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.</span></font><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></font><font color="#333300"><font size="4"><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:14pt"><b>October 10, 2011</b></span></font></font></font><font size="4"><span style="font-size:14pt"><font face="Times New Roman"> <br>
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</span><font size="4"><span style="font-size:14pt">This is the abstract:<br>
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</span></font><font size="4"><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:14pt"><b>Abstract<br>
</b></span></font><span style="font-size:14pt"><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial">Recent work in comparative linguistics suggests that all, or almost all, attested human languages may derive from a single earlier language. If that is so, then this language—like nearly all extant languages—most likely had a basic ordering of the subject (S), verb (V), and object (O) in a declarative sentence of the type “the man (S) killed (V) the bear (O).” When one compares the distribution of the existing structural types with the putative phylogenetic tree of human languages, four conclusions may be drawn. (<i>i</i>) The word order in the ancestral language was SOV. (<i>ii</i>) Except for cases of diffusion, the direction of syntactic change, when it occurs, has been for the most part SOV > SVO and, beyond that, SVO > VSO/VOS with a subsequent reversion to SVO occurring occasionally. Reversion to SOV occurs only through diffusion. (<i>iii</i>) Diffusion, although important, is not the dominant process in the evolution of word order. (<i>iv</i>) The two extremely rare word orders (OVS and OSV) derive directly from SOV.<br>
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</span></font><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">I thought this article could be both interesting and surprising for students of word order typology.<br>
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</span></font><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Peter Bakker<br>
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</span></font><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Peter Bakker email: <a href="linpb@hum.au.dk">linpb@hum.au.dk</a><br>
Department of Linguistics tel. (45) 8942.6553<br>
Inst. for Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics <br>
Aarhus University tel. institute: (0045)8942.6562 <br>
Nordre Ringgade, building 1410 fax institute: (0045)8942.6570<br>
DK - 8000 Aarhus C room 340 <br>
</span></font></font><font face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:12pt"><br>
</span></font><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">home page: <a href="http://person.au.dk/en/linpb@hum.au.dk">http://person.au.dk/en/linpb@hum.au.dk</a> <br>
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