4.2 Article

Deriving Greenberg's universal 20 and its exceptions

Journal

LINGUISTIC INQUIRY
Volume 36, Issue 3, Pages 315-332

Publisher

MIT PRESS
DOI: 10.1162/0024389054396917

Keywords

DP; word order; nominal modifiers; typology

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Of the 24 mathematically possible orders of the four elements demonstrative, numeral, adjective, and noun, only 14 appear to be attested in the languages of the world. Some of these are unexpected under Greenberg's Universal 20. Here it is proposed that the actually attested orders, and none of the unattested ones, are derivable from a single, universal, order of Merge (Dem > Num > Adj > N) and from independent conditions on phrasal movement.

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