Word order typology Word Order Example SOV 45

Word order typology Word Order % Example SOV 45% Turkish, Japanese SVO 42% English, French VSO 9% Irish, Tagalog VOS 3% Malagasy (Madagascar) OVS 1% Hixkaryana (Amazon) OSV 0% ? ?

SOV (Japanese) • • Subj Obj Watashi-ga hon-o I-Subj book-Obj “I read a book. ” V yonda. read

SVO (Indonesian) • • Subj V Obj Tini makan durian. Tini eat durian “Tini eats durian. ”

VSO (Tagalog, Philippines) • • V Subj Kumain si-Pedro ate Subj-Pedro “Pedro ate a fish. ” Obj ng-isda. Obj-fish

VOS (Seediq, Taiwan) • • V Obj Subj Mekan ido Pawan. eat rice Pawan “Pawan eats rice. ”

OVS (Hixkaryana) • 1. nomohtxowna horoto • came spider. monkey • “Spider monkeys came. ” • 2. toto yonoye kamara • man ate jaguar • “The jaguar ate the man. ”

Head Position • Head-initial: The head appears in the first position of its phrase. • Head-final: The head appears in the last position of its phrase. • Head position is a meta-rule in the mental grammar.

Head-Initial (Indonesian) • VP => V NP • membaca buku • read book • “read a book” • PP => P NP • kepada Ali • to Ali

NP => N (Adj) Det • 1. orang itu • person that • “that person” • 2. orang tua itu • person elderly that • “that elderly person”

Head-Final (Japanese) • VP => (PP) NP V • 1. hon-o yomu • book-Obj read • “read a book” • 2. uchi de hon-o yomu • home at book-Obj read • “read a book at home”

PP => NP P • • • Tokyo ni Tokyo to “to Tokyo” • NP => (Det) (Adj) N • kono akai kuruma • this red car • “this red car”