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On implicational and distributional universals of word order1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

John A. Hawkins
John A. Hawkins
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California
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Extract

This paper argues that the theory of Universal Grammar must include both implicational universals and universals of language distribution in the description and explanation of word order.

Implicational universals are of the form: if a language has some property (or properties) P, then it will also have some property (or properties) Q. These ‘if P then Q’ statements require that a language must not have property P without property Q (*P –O).

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Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , September 1980 , pp. 193 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

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