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Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Dryer, Matthew S. – Language, 1992
An empirical study of word order correlations, based on a sample of 625 languages, determined exactly what pairs of elements correlate in order with the verb and object. An alternative to the Head-Dependent Theory is presented: the Branching Direction Theory, based on consistent ordering of phrasal and nonphrasal elements. (85 references)…
Descriptors: Correlation, Language Research, Linguistic Theory, Phrase Structure
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Birner, Betty J. – Language, 1994
Presents a discourse-functional account of English inversion, based on an examination of a large corpus of naturally occurring tokens. It is argued that inversion serves an information-packaging function and that felicitous inversion depends on the relative discourse-familiarity of the information represented by the preposed and postposed…
Descriptors: Discourse Analysis, English, Language Research, Language Usage