Word order
111
are also correlations between pairs of elements neither of which, or only one of
which, correlates with the order of object and verb. For example, when we con-
sider the order of adjective and noun and the order of demonstrative and noun,
there are four logically possible combinations: DemN&AdjN, DemN&NAdj,
NDem&NAdj, and NDem&AdjN. However, of these four types, the first three
are common while the last one is uncommon. This can be described in terms
of the unidirectional implicational universal ‘If NDem, then NAdj’ (or equiva-
lently ‘If AdjN, then DemN’).
Greenberg (1963) and Hawkins (1983) discuss other possible universals that
refer to three or more elements. For example, Greenberg’s Universal 5 states
‘If a language has dominant order SOV and the genitive follows the noun,
then the adjective likewise follows the noun.’ Note that the set of languages
defined by the antecedent clause here is already somewhat small, since the
genitive normally precedes the noun in SOV languages. Most of the universals
of this form that have been proposed do appear to have some exceptions. Tigre
(Raz (1983)), a Semitic language spoken in Eritrea, is an apparent exception
to Greenberg’s Universal 5. Examples illustrating these properties are given in
(123): (123a) illustrates the SOV word order; (123b) illustrates the NG order;
and (123c) illustrates the AdjN order.
(123)
a. . . . h.atte
ʔə
ssit
walat-
ʔə
srael h.
ə
s.¯an waldat
one
woman Israelite
boy
begot
S
O
V
‘. . . an Israelite woman begot a boy’
b. walat
far
ʕ
on
daughter Pharaoh
N
G
‘the daughter of the Pharaoh’
c. la-g
ə
nd¯ab
ʔə
n¯as
the-old
man
Adj
N
‘the old man’
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