Hostname: page-component-75d7c8f48-ck798 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-03-13T18:07:59.098Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Syntactic Typology and Linearization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Viktor Krupa
Viktor Krupa*
Affiliation:
Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper has been inspired by ideas contained in W. P. Lehmann's work on syntactic typology (1978). It discusses a set of factors held to be relevant for the ways subject, verb, and object may be linearized in various languages: these are sentence depth, the cognitive factor, and relative structural independence. Various linearization patterns, i.e. SVO, SOV, VSO, VOS, OVS, and OSV conform to these factors in different degrees. A hypothesis is tested concerning the statistical correlation between the distribution of various linearization patterns among the languages of the world and their degree of conformity to the set of above-mentioned factors.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , September 1982 , pp. 639 - 645
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 by the Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Chafe, Wallace. 1970. Meaning and the structure of language. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard, and Keenan, Edward L. 1979. Noun Phrase Accessibility revisited. Lg. 55.649–64.Google Scholar
Derbyshire, Desmond. 1977. Word order universals and the existence of OVS languages. LI 8. 590–99.Google Scholar
Engelkamp, Johannes. 1974. Psycholinguistik. Munich: Fink.Google Scholar
Firbas, Jan. 1965. A note on transition proper in functional sentence analysis. Philologica Pragensia 47:8.170–76.Google Scholar
Gazzaniga, Michael S. 1970. The bisected brain. New York: Appleton Century Crofts.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph H. 1963. Universals of language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Keenan, Edward L. 1978. The syntax of subject-final languages. Syntactic typology, ed. by Lehmann, Winfred P., 267–328. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Winfred P., and Comrie, Bernard. 1977. Noun Phrase Accessibility and universal grammar. LI 8. 63–99.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Winfred P. 1978. The great underlying ground-plans. Syntactic typology, ed. by Lehmann, Winfred P., 3–55. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Lyons, John. 1977. Semantics, vol. 2. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Martin, Edwin, and Roberts, Kelyn H. 1966. Grammatical factors in sentence retention. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 5. 211–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Edwin, and Roberts, Kelyn H. 1967. Sentence length and sentence retention in the free learning situation. Psychonomic Science 8. 535–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Edwin, Roberts, Kelyn H.; and Collins, Allan M. 1968. Short-term memory for sentences. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 7. 560–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, George A. 1956. Human memory and the storage of information. I.R.E. Transactions on Information Theory IT-2 129–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perfetti, Charles A. 1969a. Lexical density and phrase structure as variables in sentence retention. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 8. 719–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perfetti, Charles A. 1969b. Sentence retention and the depth hypothesis. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 8. 101–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Kelyn H. 1968. Grammatical and associative constraints in sentence retention. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 7. 1072–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohrman, Nicholas L. 1968. The role of syntactic structure in the recall of English nominalizations. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 7. 904–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sgall, Petr, Hajičová, Eva; and Buráňová, Eva. 1980. Aktuální členění věty v češtině. Prague: Academia.Google Scholar
Vladimír, Skalička. 1962. Das Wesen der Morphologie und der Syntax. Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Slavica Pragensia 4:123–7.Google Scholar
Teigeler, Peter. 1972. Satzstruktur und Lernverhalten. Bern: Huber.Google Scholar
Tesnière, Lucien. 1959. Éléments de syntaxe structurale. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Vennemann, Theo. 1973. Explanation in syntax. Syntax and semantics, vol. 2, ed. by Kimball, John P., 1–50. Seminar Press.Google Scholar
Wright, Patricia. 1969. Two studies of the depth hypothesis. British Journal of Psychology 60. 63–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yngve, Victor H. 1960. A model and an hypothesis for language structure. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 104:5.444–66.Google Scholar
Zimek, Rudole. 1980. Sémantická vystavba věty. Prague: Státní Pedagogické Nakladatelství.Google Scholar