left-right asymmetries of word order variation of the whole-part relation

[Lu Bingfu ½±û¸¦]

Dear colleagues,
   
  I am interested in the following cross-linguistic word order variation pattern, which can be exemplified with the language internal variation as follows.
   
  (1)
  a.He died at home in bed.
  b. He died in bed at home.
   
  (2)
  a. *?In bed, at home he died  
  b. ?At home, in bed, he died. 
   
  (3)
  a. At home, he died in bed.
  b. *In bed, he died at home
   
  What the paradigm hints is as follows:
   
  When two location or time expressions having the whole-part relation co-occur, if both follow the verb, both orders are almost equally likely, as shown in (1).
   
  If both precede the verb, the whole-part order is overwhelmingly dominant over the opposite, as shown in (2).
   
  If  the two appears on the two sides of the verb.  Only the whole-part order is possible, as shown in (3).
   
  I am looking for cross-linguistic data either supporting or denying the above observation.
   
  If feedback is enough, I will do a summary.
   
  Bingfu Lu
  Institute of Linguistics
  Shanghai Normal University
  
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