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Word order
Matthew S. Dryer
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Introduction
One of the primary ways in which languages differ from one another is in
the order of constituents, or, as it is most commonly termed, their word order.
When people refer to the word order of a language, they often are referring
specifically to the order of subject, object, and verb with respect to each other,
but word order refers more generally to the order of any set of elements, either
at the clause level or within phrases, such as the order of elements within a
noun phrase. When examining the word order of a language, there are two
kinds of questions one can ask. The first question is simply that of what the
order of elements is in the language. The second question is that of how the
word order in the language conforms to cross-linguistic universals and ten-
dencies. Our discussion in this chapter will interweave these two kinds of
questions.
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