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Word Order in English and Spanish from a Typological Perspective Anna Siewierska & Dik Bakker (Lancaster University) Word Order & Information Structure 1 Word Order & Typology • Word order lies at the heart of typological investigations • Greenberg (1963) “Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements” • The first universals related to basic word order of the subject, object and verb in declarative clauses and • the existence of correlating word order patterns at the phrase level • the existence of correlating patterns in non-declaratives • the presence of inflectional categories Word Order & Information Structure 2 Word order & Spanish & English • Both are SVO languages • Interesting differences under closer inspection • Frequency of SVO order • Frequency of SV • Use of alternative orders Word Order & Information Structure 3 SVO order in English • Not necessarily the most frequent order • Intransitive clauses may be more frequent than transitive • The most frequent order in transitive clauses • OSV the only alternative • Frequency of OSV 1% • SVO 99% of transitive clauses Word Order & Information Structure 4 SVO order in Spanish • Not necessarily the most frequent order in transitive clauses • Subjects need not be overt • Objects if pronominal are typically clitics, proclitics or enclitics • Three alternatives to SVO • OVS, VOS, VSO Word Order & Information Structure 5 OVS O V S Buen descanso ganó su pobre marido good rest earned her poor husband Word Order & Information Structure 6 VOS V O S Llena los vasos Don Latino fills the glasses Don Latino Word Order & Information Structure 7 VSO V Vestía S O la novia un traje blanco, was wearing the bride a suit white diseñado, por … designed by Word Order & Information Structure 8 Basic nature of SVO • The most frequent order in transitive clauses in which the subject and object are overt and lexical • Actual frequency of SVO • Text type • Variety of Spanish Word Order & Information Structure 9 Statistical data • Clements (2006:119) • SVO 90-95% in narratives • García-Miguel (1995) two NPs • VO 97% , SV 78% • Silva-Corvalán (1983) & Ocampo (1995:428) Rioplatenese Spanish conversation • VO with lexical O 93% of transitive clauses • Pinedo (1997) contemporary written Madrid Spanish • OV with lexical O 17% of transitive VS clauses • VOS (21%) and VSO (47%) are more common than OVS Word Order & Information Structure 10 Some comparative data • • • • • • • • • SVO in Transitive with 2 NPS Russian 60% Czech 63% Hungarian 71% Polish 73% Finnish 78% Greek 81% Spanish 85% English 99% Word Order & Information Structure All Clauses 8% 20% 6% 11 Intransitive order • SVO SV • English complies with some exceptions • Spanish does not comply fully • SV vs. VS • Castilian conyemporary 47% vs. 54% • Cervantese 47% vs. 53% • Rioplatanese Spanish 38% vs. 62% Word Order & Information Structure 12 Transitive & intransitive order • • • • Transitive Hung SV= 96% VS= 3% Polish SV= 76% VS= 24% Greek SV= 83% VS= 17% Spanish SV= 78% VS= 22% Intransitive SV = 89% VS= 11% SV= 68% VS= 32% SV = 50% VS = 50% SV = 47% VS = 53% Word Order & Information Structure 13 VO vs. OV • English • VO vs. OV; 99% vs. 1% • Spanish • VO vs. OV 93%-97% vs. 7%-3% • Polish • VO vs. OV 82% vs. 18% Word Order & Information Structure 14 VO vs. OV • Russian • Written • SV = 70% vs. VS 30% • OV =10% vs. VO 90% • Spoken • SV = 90% vs. VS 10% • OV =50% vs. VO 50% Word Order & Information Structure 15 An alternative classification • English: Strongly SV & VO • Spanish: Strongly VO (be it less strongly than English) but SV/VS • Polish flexible SV & VO • Russian SV & VO/OV Word Order & Information Structure 16 Why? • What are the differences in word order variation due to? • Between Spanish and English • In SVO languages • In languages in general Word Order & Information Structure 17 WO variation & morphological marking • Word order variation in transitive clauses • Morphological marking • Case marking • Agreement marking Word Order & Information Structure 18 WO variation & case • Case marking allows the subject and object to be distinguished from each other without relying on word order to do so • Rigid word order of English is typically attributed to the disappearance of case • Old English had case marking and exhibited greater word order flexibility: SVO, SOV, OSV, OVS, VSO (rare) Word Order & Information Structure 19 Old English: SOV S O V ic Þæs næfre ne sceamige I:nom this:gen never not shame:1sg `I am never ashamed of that.’ Word Order & Information Structure 20 Old English: OVS O V S Tyn beboda awrat se ælmihtiga Ten commandments wote the almighty on đæm twam tabelum on the two tablets `The almighty wrote ten commandments on the two tablets.’ (p. 42) Word Order & Information Structure 21 Old English: VSO V S O Secgađ eac ure bec Þæt we sceolon Say-pl also our books that we shall đas feowertyne niht mid micelre these fourteen nights with great geornfulnysse healdan earnestness hold `Our books also say that we should hold these fourteen days with great earnestness.’ Word Order & Information Structure 22 Current English & Spanish • Differ with regard to case • English: no case marking with nonpronominal NPs • Spanish: has case marking with nonpronominal definite, animate objects by means of “a” Word Order & Information Structure 23 Word order variation: Siewierska (1997) • Measuring w/o variation: number of permutations of S,O & V • • • • • rigid - no variants restricted - one variant variable - two variants flexible - three variants highly flexible - four + English Icelandic Spanish Polish Word Order & Information Structure 24 WO & case • Languages which lack case marking favour rigid (36%) and restricted order (33%) = 69% Word Order & Information Structure 25 Case relative to wo variation 35 30 25 Rigid Restricted 20 Variable 15 Flexible Higly Flex 10 5 0 no case case Word Order & Information Structure 26 WO & case • The level of case marking increases from 24% in rigid languages to 79% in highly flexible ones Word Order & Information Structure 27 Wo variation relative to case 35 30 25 20 no case 15 case 10 5 0 Rigid Restricted Variable Flexible Higly Flex Word Order & Information Structure 28 Flexibility, marking & wo type • Word order variation is more sensitive to case marking in SVO than in SOV • 57% of the rigid SOV, 88% of rigid SVO & 100% of rigid VSO/VOS lack case marking • 5% of the highly flexible SOV, 28% of the SVO & 8% of the VSO/VOS have case marking • SVO languages without case tend not to have SOV Word Order & Information Structure 29 WO variation & agreement • Agreement marking helps to distinguish the subject from the object if the two differ in person, number or gender. • If a language has subject agreement only, whichever NP displays agreement is the subject • saw-3sg the children Mary • saw-3sg Mary I • the children saw-3sg Mary Word Order & Information Structure 30 WO variation & agreement • Agreement is cross-linguistically much more common than case marking • 75 - 80% of languages have agreement • 45- 50% of languages have case marking • Spanish & English differ in regard to agreement; Spanish has agreement, English only vestiges Word Order & Information Structure 31 WO variation & agreement 35 30 25 20 No Agr 15 Agr 10 5 0 Rigid Restricted Variable Flexible Word Order & Information Structure Highly Flex 32 Agreement vs. wo variation 35 30 25 Rigid 20 Restricted Variable 15 Flexible 10 Highly Flex 5 0 No Agr Agr Word Order & Information Structure 33 WO variation & agreement marking • Absence of agreement is a good predictor of lack of word order variation, but presence of agreement is not a good predictor of flexible order (Siewierska 1997:.507) • The greatest sensitivity to the presence of agreement marking is exhibited by SVO languages • Rigid SVO are much less likely to have agreement than rigid SOV or V1 • Flexible SVO are more likely to have agreement than flexible SOV or V1 Word Order & Information Structure 34 SVO, Agr & variation • No SVO language in the sample without agreement has either OVS or VOS • Only two of the SVO without agreement have VSO, Gude and Coptic, Gude (aspect), Coptic a descendent of VSO • The most likely variant in SVO without agreement is OSV • Postverbal placement of transitive S in SVO seems to depend on agreement Word Order & Information Structure 35 Spanish & English • Absence of word order variants other than OSV in English, no case marking or agreement marking • Spanish • Presence of OVS, VOS & VSO: associated with agreement marking • Absence of SOV: restricted case marking • ?no OSV Word Order & Information Structure 36 Exercise • OSV in English • What are the semantic characteristics of the subject and object, definiteness, animacy, person? Word Order & Information Structure 37 Back to basic order • Correlations between the basic order in the clause and the phrase • The clause: VO vs. OV • The phrase: • Type of adpositions • The placement of the inflected auxiliary relative to the verb • Order within the NP Word Order & Information Structure 38 Consistent ordering • A Consistent language is one in which all head modifier pairs comply with either • head > modifier • modifier > head • English & Spanish SVO -> VO > HM • Expectation Head Modifier verb object PPs adposition NP VC auxiliary verb • Confirmed Word Order & Information Structure 39 In the NP • Initial expectation also HM Head Modifier noun article noun demonstrative noun adjective noun numeral noun quantifier noun pronominal possessor noun genitive noun relative clause Word Order & Information Structure 40 Revising the expectations • Dryer (1992); contrary to what Greenberg suggested not all head/modifier pairs correlate with VO vs. OV • Only those do where H is a non-phrasal (lexical category) and M is a phrasal category (branching category) • Branching categories: V & NP, V & PP, P & NP; N & Gen; N & AdjP; N & Rel Cl • Non-branching: N & Art, N & Dem, Noun & Num, N&Q Word Order & Information Structure 41 The Branching Direction Theory • Languages tend to be either rightbranching (VO) in which phrasal categories follow non-phrasal categories or left-branching (OV) in which phrasal categories precede non-phrasal categories Word Order & Information Structure 42 head & modifier in the NP Modifier article demonstr adjective numeral quantifier genitive Pro genitive NP rel clause Head noun noun noun noun noun noun noun noun E MH MH MH MH MH MH M/HM HM Word Order & Information Structure S MH MH/M M/HM MH/M MH/M MH/M HM HM 43 Consistency within the NP • English at the NP level is predominantly MH not HM • Spanish is more HM Word Order & Information Structure 44 In the European context • Distribution of languages in Europe in terms of consistent HM vs. MH • NP • Head > Modifier Celtic < Albanian, Romance < Greek, Slavic < Germanic < Baltic, Finnic Modifier > Head Word Order & Information Structure 45 Away from Eurasian OV • The Celtic are VSO and the Finnic have fairly recently undergone a change from SOV to SVO order Word Order & Information Structure 46 VSO, SVO & SOV Word Order & Information Structure 47 Away from Eurasian OV • The increase in HM order as we proceed from east to west may be attributed to the geographical and chronological distance from the MH type predominant in Eurasia Word Order & Information Structure 48 The VO lgs. of Europe • Increase in HM features from east to west • Num < Dem< Adj < Gen < Rel • NumN = all VO lgs (not yet) • NDem = Celtic • NAdj = Celtic, Albanian, Romance (and also Maltese and Assyrian) • NG = Celtic, Romance, Albanian, Maltese, Assyrian, Greek, Germanic and Slavic • NRel = all VO lgs Word Order & Information Structure 49 Variation within the NP • Which modifiers exhibit alternative placement possibilities relative to the head • In the languages of Europe (Bakker & Siewierska 1997) Word Order & Information Structure 50 Decreasing likelihood of variation • A hierarchy of decreasing likelihood of exhibiting an alternative order to that of the basic order • adjective > genitive > relative clause > numeral > demonstrative • • • • • AdjN/NAdj = in just over half of the lgs. of Europe GN/NG = in a little over a third RelN/NRel = in a little over a quarter NumN/NNUm = in about a fifth DemN/NDem = in only 13% Word Order & Information Structure 51 Away from Eurasian OV: Adj • The further removed a language is from this Eurasian OV type the less relics of this type and more deviation in the direction of VO order it should display. • Celtic = strongly NAdj (AdjN only with semi-compounds) • Germanic, Baltic and Finnic = strongly AdjN • middle = more readily NAdj --> AdjN (Albanian, Maltese, Romance) or AdjN --> NAdj (Greek and Slavic) order. • The possibilities of the use of AdjN order decrease with the distance from the Eurasian OV type Word Order & Information Structure 52 Away from Eurasian OV: Gen • The alternative orders of the genitive pattern in a similar way. • Celtic, Albanian and Romance = only NG • Greek and Slavic allow GN under various circumstances • Germanic and Baltic GN languages have NG • Finnic = the majority strictly GN. Word Order & Information Structure 53 Away from Eurasian OV: Rel • Only the Finnic languages have a regular RelN alternative to the basic NRel, a clear relic of their relatively recent OV past. Word Order & Information Structure 54 Variation in English & Spanish NPs • English: • GN vs. NG • Spanish: • NAdj vs. AdjN Word Order & Information Structure 55 GN vs. NG in English • Old English GN (s-genitive) with rare instances of NG (of-phrase) • By Middle English NG (of phrase) well established • Recently a resurgence of GN (sgenitive) Word Order & Information Structure 56 GN vs. NG • The choice between the s-genitive and the of-phrase has been seen to be determined by factors such as • animacy of possessor, thematic status, information status, final sibilant on the possessor, end weight, persistence (i.e. repetition) and the ‘nouniness’ of the text/passage • register Word Order & Information Structure 57 Register • NG is more common than GN in all registers • News has by far the highest frequency of GN • Academic prose has by far the highest frequency of NG Word Order & Information Structure 58 GN vs. NG • Animacy of possessor • John’s leg • the leg of the chair • ?the chair’s leg • Definiteness of possessed • a book of John’s • *the book of John’s • Length of possessor • the trustee’s appointment • the recent appointment of a part-time woman and two men Word Order & Information Structure 59 Increase of GN with inanimates • Jespersen(1909-49: VII, 327f.) • the sea’s rage, the rapidity of the heart’s action, or the room’s atmosphere. • Greater increase in American (41%) than in British English (25%) • British English: LOB vs. F-LOB • American English: Brown vs. Frown • Greatest increases in Press and Learned subcorpora, showing remarkable rises of 57% and 88% in AmE and 35% and 34% in BrE respectively Word Order & Information Structure 60 S-genitive vs. of-genitive & length • the lecturer's name • the lecturer who stammer's name • the name of the lecturer who stammers • Biber et al (1999); proportional use of sgentive and of-phrase of different lengths, for selected head nouns: appointment, arrival, muder, resignation, withdrawal Word Order & Information Structure 61 Biber et al. (1999:304) 120 100 80 s-genitive 60 of-gentive 40 20 0 1 word 2 words 3 words 4 words Word Order & Information Structure 62 NA vs. AN in Spanish • Two types of adjectives: relational (geographic entity, ethnic group, professional or scientific discipline, symbolic or philosophical movement) vs. qualifying (shape, space physical property) • invasión americana, estractura molecular • grandes edificios, ciertas fórmulas • Relational confined to NA • Qualifying more flexibility: NA & AN Word Order & Information Structure 63 NA vs. AN • AN order is much more common in written discourse (24%) than in spoken (5%) • AN order has become less common over time • File- Muriel (2006); fiction • • • • • • 1648 1876 1886 1974 1981 1999 62.9% 58% 55% 27% 24% 24% AN AN AN AN AN AN Word Order & Information Structure 64 NA vs. AN • Variation in placemen in order • Contrast, emphasis • vivos colores colores vivos • Change in meaning • el antiguo presidente vs. el president antiguo • the former the very old • Heaviness Word Order & Information Structure 65 Heaviness • Syllabic heaviness; if the adjective has fewer syllables than the noun, the adjective is preposed, if more, it is postposed • File- Muriel (2006:211); preposed adjectives tend to be equal or lighter than the N 83.8% overall and in written discourse and 100% in spoken discourse • Relational adjectives tend to be heavier (in terms of number of syllables) than other types of adjectives Word Order & Information Structure 66 Relative heaviness • • • • • • • • • Mean nr syllables % preposed Relational 3.93 0 Evaluation 3.55 46.8 Personality 3.5 18.8 Modality 3.25 30.6 Temporal 3.11 35.7 Physical 2.8 40.0 Shape & space 2.56 44.2 * for evaluational 3.18 for preposed, 3.88 for postposed Word Order & Information Structure 67 Sequences of adjectives • Postposed • N relational > qualifying • Una comedia musical americana divertida a comedy musical American amusing `an amusing American musical comedy’ • Preposed qualifying + Postposed • Una divertida comedia musical americana a amusing comedy musical American `an amusing American musical comedy’ Word Order & Information Structure 68 Sequences of modifiers • Simple NPs • Demonstrative, Numeral, Adjective & Noun • Most common in Europe and the world • Dem Num A N (English) • Exclusive to Europe as a basic order • Dem Num N A (Spanish) • Complex NPs • Dem Num A N Gen/Rel • Dem Num N A Gen/ Rel English Spanish Word Order & Information Structure 69 Factors underlying word order • Information structure • Linearizing constituents in a way which is most likely for the hearer to understand the communicative intention of the speaker • Processing ease • Linearizing constituents in a way which will enable the hearer to process the utterance in the shortest possible time Word Order & Information Structure 70 Information Structure • Topic vs. Comment • A binary approach: topic: what the utterance is primarily about vs. comment: what is said about the topic • Who painted this picture? • It was painted by Jasper. • Non-binary: what the utterance is primarily about (topic a relation between a discourse entity and a predication) vs. focus: the most important or salient piece of information in the utterance as assessed by the speaker Word Order & Information Structure 71 Topic vs. Focus a. Who painted this one? b. It was painted by Jasper. Jasper painted it. It was Jasper who painted it. b. Where are they from? France. c. What was it like? Dreadful. Word Order & Information Structure 72 Given vs. new information • Given: assumed to be identifiable by the hearer • New: assumed not to be identifiable by the hearer • Who painted this one? Jasper painted it. It was Jasper who painted it. Word Order & Information Structure 73 Levels of activation • Active: currently in centre of consciousness: just mentioned, well established 1.Okay, there's a farmer. 2.He looks like a Chicano American. 3.He is picking pears. (...) 4. A little boy comes by on his bicycle. 5.He sees that there are baskets of pears there. 6.Meanwhile, there are three little boys, up on the road a little bit, 7.and they see this little accident • Semi-active: in a person's peripheral consciousness 8.And then he (i.e. the boy on the bicycle) goes off, 9. and that's the end of that story. 10.But then it goes back to the farmer. 11.Finally he comes down from his tree. 12.He looks at the baskets. Word Order & Information Structure 74 Levels of activiation • Inferrable: referents inferentially related to some evoked entity, or in a salient set relation to such an entity. • It's a nice house, but the kitchen is too small. • The team played quite well I suppose, but one or two of them are still a bit unfit. • Inactive: currently in a person's long term memory Word Order & Information Structure 75 Word Order & Information Structure • Topic > comment unmarked • Comment > Topic marked • Topic > Focus unmarked • Focus > Topic marked • Given > New unmarked • New > Given marked Word Order & Information Structure 76 Task Urgency: Givon (1988) • Attend first to the most urgent task, where a communicative task is identified as more urgent if the information to be communicated is either less predictable or more important. • less predictable > more predictable • more important > less important • comment; comment > topic; topic > comment; topic Word Order & Information Structure 77 Who painted the picture? • • • • Jasper. Jasper painted it. It was painted by Jasper. The picture, Jasper painted it. Word Order & Information Structure 78 WO type & IS • Task Urgency is intended to hold for all languages subject to grammatical factors • Significantly it is intended to hold for both • Subject before object languages • Object before subject languages • More important before less important Word Order & Information Structure 79 WO & IS in English & Spanish • WO more grammaticalized in English than in Spanish • To what extent does wo reflect TU? • Preposing of topical given information • Postposing of new/focal information Word Order & Information Structure 80 Spanish main clause order • • • • OVS VOS VSO SV vs. VS Word Order & Information Structure 81 OVS without clitic doubling • OVS !Buen descanso ganó su pobre marido! good rest earned her poor husband. • OV-s Alhajas, no tengo Jewels not have:1sg `Jewellery I don’t have.’ Word Order & Information Structure 82 OVS with clitic doubling • O cl V S El dinero lo puso Arturo, naturalmente the money it put Arturo of course `The money, Arturo put it in , of course.’ • O cl V-s A Juan lo he visto en el supermercado Obj Juan him have:1sg seen in the supermarket `Juan I saw in the supermarket.’ Word Order & Information Structure 83 OVS • Without clitic doubling • Restricted to non-specific • Typically bare plurals • Contrary to expectation; O new; initial peak pitch and an accent with a steep fall • Focus- fronting; O is new; the distance between highest and lowest pitch is smaller than in contrary to expectation • Contrastive • With clitic doubling • Definite • Old information, topical Word Order & Information Structure 84 VOS • Han recorrido el camino desde have travelled the road from reyes a mendigos, desde santos a kings to beggars from saints to seres normal people Word Order & Information Structure 85 VOS • Conduce la discusión conducts the discussion Don don Lauro Rovirosa, que tiene L R who has… Word Order & Information Structure 86 VOS • Information structure • O typically given • S focal, new, often long Word Order & Information Structure 87 VSO • Conflicting claims • Whitley (1986): S preferably indefinite Se ha comido un niño la manzana * Se ha comido el niño la manzana • Pinedo (1997) • Short subject, human, animate, second argument clausal object or NP not amenable to passivization, e.g. second argument of verb “have” • Frequent in indirect reported speech Word Order & Information Structure 88 VSO • S: frequently main protagonist of a particular stretch of discourse, often of a whole text • Pudo recordar la cantante su primera could remember the singer her first boda wedding Word Order & Information Structure 89 VSO • Tenía el racimo cinco grandes uvas had the bunch five big `The bunch had five big grapes.’ grapes • Queriendo el hombre desplazarse wanted acaso perhaps the man travel para observar, al menos en un to observe principio, de dónde venia el viento y de dónde la lluvia…. Word Order & Information Structure 90 VSO • Information structure • S: given, activated, topical • O: new, focal • V: maybe new Word Order & Information Structure 91 OSV in English • Similar to Spanish OVS without clitic doubling • • • • O: Contrasitve O: Focal S: given information, de-accented S: typically a personal pronoun Word Order & Information Structure 92 SV vs. VS in Spanish & English • • • • Postposing of new S Bare – no preverbal material Inversion – with preverbal material Existentials Word Order & Information Structure 93 Bare SV vs. VS • Spanish both SV & VS • Los niños sonrieron `The children smiled.’ • Canta mi padre `My father sings.’ • English SV only (apart from stage presentations) • A woman enters • Enters an old woman Word Order & Information Structure 94 Preverbal S in Spanish • No bare plurals • Llegaron muebles arrived furniture `The furniture arrived.’ • *Muebles llegaron Word Order & Information Structure 95 Inversion XVS • Definiteness • VS in English are indefinite • Spanish allows both definite & indefinite • Nature of verb • VS in English: low content, unaccuative verbs • Spanish allows inversion with all sorts of verbs • Information structure • VS typically is presentative Word Order & Information Structure 96 Indefinite S • En el vacío indoloro patino de pronto in the void painless slid suddenly una voz gangosa, jadeante a voice twanging, painting `Into the painless void suddenly slid a panting, twanging voice Word Order & Information Structure 97 No definiteness constraint • XVS def A las cuatro viene la funeraria at four comes the undertaker `The undertaker is due at four.’ En el patio ladra el perro in the yard barks the dog `The dog is barking in the yard.’ Word Order & Information Structure 98 verbs • Cantaba un pajaro en el solitario corral singing a bird in the deserted threshold `A bird was singing in the deserted threshold.’ *In the deserted threshold was a bird singing.’ `In the deserted threshold there was a bird singing.’ Word Order & Information Structure 99 English inversion • Type of preposed complement • Restrictions on use Word Order & Information Structure 100 Type of preposed complements • PP • George can you do me a favour. Up in my room, on the nightstand is a pinkish reddish envelope that has to go out immediately. • AdjP • Immediately recognisable here is the basic, profoundly false tenet of Movie Philosophy 101 Word Order & Information Structure 101 Type of preposed complement • NP • She’s a nice woman, isn’t she. Also a nice woman is our next guest. • Subjectless non-finite clauses • Arrested were Nathan Johnson, 23 of New York and his brother, Victor Johnson, 32. Word Order & Information Structure 102 Condition 1 • The preposed phrase must not represent information that has a lower level of activation in the discourse that that represented by the postposed NP. • *They have a whole bunch of pots in the kitchen, and in a great big tank are sitting all of the pots. • They have a whole bunch of pots in the kitchen, and in the tank are sitting all of the pots. Word Order & Information Structure 103 Condition 2 • Unless the preposed dependent is semantically locative, the inversion requires an appropriate open proposition that is discourse old. • *The Air & Water show did not go as planned yesterday. Wounded were Paul Randolph and Steve Seymour. • Two young men were hurt yesterday during a bungled convenience store robbery., according to police. Two suspects were arrested at the scene and are now in custody. Wounded were Paul Randolph and Steve Seymour. Word Order & Information Structure 104 Condition 3 • The verb must not represent information that is new to the discourse. • The vast majority of inversion have ascriptive “be” • Other verbs • He opened the door and took a folded canvas bucket from behind the seat. Coiled on the floor lay a fifty-foot length of braided nylon. • Beneath the chin lap of the helmet sprouted black whiskers. • On the manager’s desk sat a large manila envelope. Word Order & Information Structure 105 Existentials • English: there • Spanish: haber & estar Word Order & Information Structure 106 Haber & estar • Haber: indefinite S Hay un caballo en el jardin `There is a horse in the garden.’ • Estar: definite S En el jardin esta el caballo. in the garden is the horse.’ `The horse is in the garden.’ Word Order & Information Structure 107 Existentials • Bare existentials • There was a power failure. • There are many splendid things. • Extended existentials • There’s a man knocking at the door. • There’s plenty of room on the top shelf • Bare existentials do not and extended ones may have non-there counterparts • #A power failure was • A man was knocking at the door Word Order & Information Structure 108 Exercise: existentials • Not all extended existentials have a non-there counterpart. Determine which do and which do not. Word Order & Information Structure 109 Processing Ease • The Early Immediate Constituent (EIC) recognition principle (Hawkins 1994) • A preference for linearization patterns which allow the quickest recognition of immediate constituents of syntactic groupings • The EIC predicts that information about immediate constituency should be placed in the earlier rather than the latter part of a string Word Order & Information Structure 110 EIC a. I vp [introduced np [some friends that John brought to the party] pp[to Mary]] b. I vp[introduced pp[to Mary] np[some friends that John brought to the party]] • VP = V NP PP vs. V PP NP Word Order & Information Structure 111 A preference for b) over a) • in (a) since the NP is heavy the distance separating the first IC, the V from the word that constructs the last IC, the PP (the preposition “to”) is very long • in (1b) the distance between V and the word constructing the last IC of the VP, the NP (the word “some”) is much shorter • thus all the ICs of the VP are more rapidly recognized in (b) than in (a) • consequently there should be a preference for (b) over (a) Word Order & Information Structure 112 Word order & length & complexity • short > long • less complex > more complex • LIPOC (Dik 1978) • Other things being equal, constituents prefer to be placed in an order of increasing complexity, where the complexity of constituents is defined as follows: • (i) clitic < pronoun < noun phrase < adpositional phrase < subordinate clause; • (ii) for any category X: X < X co X; • (iii) for any categories X and Y:X < X [sub Y] Word Order & Information Structure 113 Wackernagel’s Law • the tendency for clitics to occur in second position in the utterance, Slovene a. Pojavil se je problem. emerged refl be:prs:3sg problem `There emerged a problem.' b. Oe mu jo je dal. father he:dat it:acc be:prs:3sg given `Father gave/ has given it to him.' Word Order & Information Structure 114 Earlier placement of pronominal objects • Spanish: clitic objects Vi a Juan saw:1sg acc Juan `I saw Juan.’ Lo vi. Word Order & Information Structure 115 Uzbeck • Men un-ga nlma-ni berman. I him-dat apple-acc give:fut `I'll give him the apple.' • Men u- ni sen-ga raman. I it-acc you-dat send:fut `I'll send it to you.' Word Order & Information Structure 116 Heavy NP-shift • NP PP PP NP • The girl wore on her shoulders two large white wings decorated with almond shaped figures. • Agile explained to us the various symbols. • She revealed to him the true measurements of the temple of Solomon. • I drew on the parquet the circle of defence Word Order & Information Structure 117 Final placement of sentential NPs • That he is jealous is obvious. • It is obvious that he is jealous. Word Order & Information Structure 118 Extraposition from NP • I met a man last night who reminded me of you. • Another book has just appeared about word order. Word Order & Information Structure 119 Adjectives with PP/S complements • paper yellow with age • a man interested in music • a people so independent that they reject help Word Order & Information Structure 120 Other • GN vs. NG in English • AN vs. NA in Spanish • Binominal expressions • prim and proper; bag and baggage; death and destruction • part and parcel; out and about Word Order & Information Structure 121 Back to the EIC • Predictions regarding length and complexity are sensitive to the basic word order of a language, whether it is basically OV or VO • For relatively heavy categories such as sentential and NP complements the EIC predicts • short > long in VO languages but • long > short in OV • For single word categories short > long in all languages Word Order & Information Structure 122 long > short • Japanese a. [s1[NPMary ga] VP[S[S2kinoo Mary to] it-ta]] that said John ga kekkonsi-ta] yesterday John married `Mary said that John got married yesterday’ b. s2[S[S1Kinoo John ga kekkonsi-ta] to] [it-ta]] Word Order & Information Structure NP[Mary ga]VP 123 long > short • Hare [Mary Inuvik wheda] John yodihsho Mary Inuvik be:in John knows `John knows that Mary is in Inuvik.’ Word Order & Information Structure 124 EIC algorithm • Processing ease is determined by counting the number of words required to recognize each immediate constituent, expressing this in the form of an IC-to-word ratio, converting this ratio to a percentage and finally averaging out all the percentages. • As soon as all the ICs are encountered, the word count stops irrespective of how many words the last IC actually has. • The higher the EIC-ratio, the easier the given word order pattern is assumed to be for processing. • The EIC ratios depend on length (measured in number of words) and number of constituents within a particular constituent recognition domain Word Order & Information Structure 125 EIC word order predictions • Cross-linguistic preferences: which word order patterns are preferred by grammars; which are the most frequent basic word order patterns (grammaticalization): • Preference for SOV vs. OSV • Preference for SVO vs. OVS • Language internal: which word order patterns are most frequent in texts and preferred by speakers in psycholinguistic experimentation (performance) Word Order & Information Structure 126 Cross-linguistic • OV vs. VO & adpositions • VO languages tend to have prepositions • OV languages tend to have postpositions • however there are VO languages with postpositions • and also much more rarely OV languages with prepositions Word Order & Information Structure 127 VO & post • Arawak Li fary-fa aba kabadaro he kill-fut one jaguar `He killed a jaguar.’ Da-dyka no hyala diako 1sg-see it bench on `I saw it on a bench.’ Word Order & Information Structure 128 OV & Prep • Tigre Ana ?et ləhay may ?ət-ta mahaze gale 1sg in that water in-the river something ?ərə? halle-ko see be-1sg `I see something in the water in the river.’ Word Order & Information Structure 129 WALS Word Order & Information Structure 130 EIC ratios a. b. c. d. went to that film went that film to that film to went to that film went EIC EIC EIC EIC Word Order & Information Structure ratio ratio ratio ratio 77% 23% 93% 7% 131 Language internal • Particle movement in English a.V NP particle = basic b.V particle NP = transformed • NP=1 word a. Joe looked Mary up. Basic = 51 b. Joe looked up Mary. Transformed = 3 Ratio of transformed 6% Word Order & Information Structure 132 Particle movement • • NP=2 words a. Joe looked the number up. Basic = 21 b. Joe looked up the number. Transformed = 45 Ratio of transformed 68% NP=3 words a. Joe looked the fax number up. Basic = 3 b. Joe looked up the fax number. Transformed = 13 Ratio of transformed 81% Word Order & Information Structure 133 Particle movement • NP=4 words a. Joe looked the new fax number up. Basic = 1 b. Joe looked up the new fax number. Transformed = 13 Ratio of transformed 93% • NP=5 a. Joe looked his sister’s new fax number up. Basic = 0 b. Joe looked up his sister’s new fax number. Transformed= 29 Ratio of transformed = 100% Word Order & Information Structure 134 Back to transitive order • Transitive order & EIC • Data for Polish transitive order • All six permutations of S, O, V • No data for Spanish transitive order • SVO, VSO, VOS & OVS • To what extent are the two languages similar?? Word Order & Information Structure 135 Frequency of Tr orders in Polish • N =760 Expository prose & fiction SOV 52 6.8% SVO 331 43.5% VSO 72 9.4% VOS 109 14.3% OVS 158 20.7% OSV 38 5% Word Order & Information Structure 136 Polish vs. Spanish Polish SOV 52 SVO 331 VSO 72 VOS 109 OVS 158 OSV 38 Spanish ? 47 21 17 Word Order & Information Structure 137 Length characteristics: nr of words • • • • • • • Order SOV SVO VSO VOS OVS OSV Intitial 1.5 2.5 Medial 1.5 1.1 1.3 3.0 3.3 Word Order & Information Structure Final 3.8 6.1 5.0 3.7 1.1 138 Length characteristics: nr of words • • • • • • • Order SOV SVO VSO VOS OVS OSV Intitial 1.5 2.5 Medial 1.5 1.1 1.3 3.0 3.3 Word Order & Information Structure Final 3.8 6.1 5.0 3.7 1.1 139 Polish & Spanish • VSO & VOS: similar to Polish • OVS: not clear • SVO: a range of pragmatic uses: similar Word Order & Information Structure 140 Average EIC rations • • • • • • SVO – 90% SOV – 81% VSO – 86% VOS – 84% OVS – 76% 0SV - 69% Word Order & Information Structure 141 Interpretation • processing underlies the preference for SVO order in Polish. • the lower average EIC scores for the other transitive patterns suggest that it is not processing ease that motivates the choice of a non-SVO pattern over an SVO one • SOV, VSO and OSV always have lower EIC ratios than the corresponding SVO order would have had. • OVS and VOS may score higher than SVO, but only when the subject is longer than the object and the object consists of a single word Word Order & Information Structure 142 EIC predicitions & Polish data • SVO order as the basic (grammaticalized) order should be overall most preferred in terms of processing ease - correct • the non-SVO orders should be resorted to only when the use of SVO order is not optimal for processing - incorrect • given the weight characteristics of the subject and object, the non-SVO order chosen should be easier to process than the SVO alternative would be – incorrect In 79% of the cases), but Word Order & Information Structure 143 EIC predictions • each of the transitive patterns tends to be favoured under weight conditions which allow the given pattern to achieve higher rather than lower EIC ratios • in all: it is not only the EIC that provides the motivation for word order variation in Polish Word Order & Information Structure 144 Polish data & pragmatic principles • More predictable > less predictable • Predictability: referential distance measured in terms of distance between current mention of referent and previous mention in terms of number of clauses (a bit simplistic) • More important > less important • Importance: topic persistence; measured in terms of number of successive clauses following current clause featuring the referent (a bit simplistic) Word Order & Information Structure 145 Average Referential distance: nr clauses • • • • • • • Order SOV SVO VSO VOS OVS OSV Intitial 4.6 7.5 Medial 5.3 3.3 3.4 7.0 7.0 Final 13.3 16.8 16.7 14.5 6.3 Word Order & Information Structure 146 Average Topic persistence: in nr clauses • • • • • • • Order SOV SVO VSO VOS OVS OSV Intitial 1.69 1.02 Medial 0.65 0.56 0.50 0.49 0.37 Final 0.68 1.11 0.94 0.88 0.92 Word Order & Information Structure 147 More > less predictable 200 180 160 140 120 L>R 100 L=R 80 L<R 60 40 20 0 SOV SVO VSO VOS OVS OSV Word Order & Information Structure 148 Short> long 180 160 140 120 L>R 100 L=R 80 L<R 60 40 20 0 SOV SVO VSO VOS OVS Word Order & Information Structure OSV 149 Length vs pragmatics • • • • short/given > long/new short > long = 52%; more predicable > less predictable 62% biggest differences: • OVS 49% contravene short > long; 10% contravene more predictable > less predictable; • OSV 84% contravene short > long; 34% contravene more predictable > less predictable • diverging predictions of short > long and more predictable > less predictable for 49% (372 clauses) of the cases in the corpus: pragmatic principle is correct in 48% (180/372), length in 28% (103/372) Word Order & Information Structure 150 Processing Ease vs. Pragmatics • Both clearly relevant • Which wins out? • Text type • Investigations of Polish word order on written texts (expository and fiction) • Processing ease most evident in on line processing: spoken language Word Order & Information Structure 151 Back to Spanish • Spanish wo is less flexible than Polish • The same principles seem to apply • Conditions of use of VSO, VOS • TU • EIC • Major differences: • Extensive case marking in Polish • No clitic doubling in Polish Word Order & Information Structure 152 Summary • Spanish and English are SVO lgs • English: SV & VO • Spanish: SV/VS & VO • Differences in wo flexibility is attributable to agreement • At the phrase level less differences • Spanish is slightly more HM than English • Both lgs. reflect the TU and EIC • Which is stronger? Word Order & Information Structure 153 References • Clements, J.C. (2006). Primary and Secondary object marking in Spanish. In , 115 -133. • Dryer, M. 1991. "The Greenbergian word order correlations". Language 68, 81-138. • File-Muriel, R.J. (2006). Spanish adjective position: differences between written and spoken discourse, 203-218. • Garcia-Miguel J.M. (1995). Transitividad y complementacion preposicional en español. Universudad de Santiago de Compostela (verba, anexo 40). • Givón, Talmy (ed.), (1983). Topic continuity in discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. • Greenberg, Joseph. (1963): Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meanigful elements. in: Greenberg, Joseph (ed.), Universals of Human Language, 73113, Cambridge: MIT Press. Word Order & Information Structure 154 References • Greenberg, Joseph. (1963): Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meanigful elements. in: Greenberg, Joseph (ed.), Universals of Human Language, 73113, Cambridge: MIT Press. • Hawkins, J.A. (1994). A performance theory of order and constiuency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Myhill, J. (1992). Typological Disocurse Analysis. Oxford: Blackwell. • Ocampo, F. 1995. The word order of two constituent constructions in spoken Spanish. In: P. Downing & M. Noonan (eds.), Word Order in Discourse. Amsterdam : John Benjamins, 425-448. Word Order & Information Structure 155 References • Siewierska, A. (1988). Word Order Rules. London: Croom Helm. • Siewierska, A. (1993). Syntactic weight vs pragmatic factors and word order variation in Polish. Journal of Linguistics. • Siewierska, Anna (ed.), (1997). Constituent Order in the Languages of Europe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Word Order & Information Structure 156