Discussed the relationship between definiteness and word order (WO) from three aspects: the position of the unquantified noun phrases as related to their definiteness; effects of quantifiers on WO; and relative order of different noun phrases in the same clause. Data verify that the correlation between definiteness and WO is valid for larger…

We find a general, language-independent pattern in child language acquisition in which there is a clear difference between subject and object noun phrases. On one hand, indefinite objects tend to be interpreted nonreferentially, independently of word order and across experiments and languages. On the other hand, indefinite subjects tend to be…

In Spanish non-sentence constructions, beginning elements establish a datum of reference, while following elements narrow the possibilities of syntagmatic combination. Word order is examined in relation to paradigm contrast and syntagmatic complexity. (CK)

The reversal of subject and predicate terms in quantified, categorical expressions was studied as an operation that is potentially important in issues of representation and comprehension of quantified relations. In two experiments students were asked to evaluate the relation between two quantified expressions. The salience of reversal in the…

This research suggests a possible diachronic explanation for the emergence of OVS (Object-Verb-Subject) as basic sentence word order in Carib languages. The application of afterthought grammaticalization patterns to explain diachronic change in the position of subject necessitates some modification of Hyman's and Venneman's hypotheses. Neither…

The purpose of this paper is to show that: (1) language universals have much to offer to students of contrastive linguistics, and (2) in order to make contrastive analysis more meaningful, one ought to go beyond cataloguing mere contrastive structure statements and capture underlying structural tendencies. Some characteristics of word order in…