This feature involves a comparison of the word order in transitive clauses with nominal objects with order in clauses with clausal objects. By clausal objects here we mean clauses that are directly governed by a finite verb (typically verbs of ‘wanting’, ‘saying’, etc.). In other words, complement clauses are a specific type of subordinate clauses and are not relative clauses. For example, the objects in I like apples (nominal object) and I like that you play the piano every morning (clausal object) are in the same position (SVO). Many of the languages that do not place clausal objects in the same position as nominal objects are SOV languages that use SVO order for (long) clausal objects. This question aims to discern whether these clausal objects are treated like prototypical nominal direct objects (not indirect or obliques). This is not always explicitly stated by the descriptive work, but an investigation into the examples and perhaps even appended text of the grammar should typically reveals evidence for answering this question.
Assiniboine (ISO 639-3: asb, Glottolog: assi1247)
Assiniboine clausal constituents that serve as the objects of transitive verbs occur before the verb, and may precede or follow the subject, as shown below.
(a) John [mnatkí̜-kte-ší̜ žé] snok-0-yá John [0-1SG.A-drink-POT-NEG COMP] know-3SG.A-know ‘John knows [that I'm not going to drink it].’ (Cumberland 2005: 415) (b) [mnatkí̜-kte-ší̜ žé] John snok-0-yá [0-1SG.A-drink-POT-NEG COMP] John know-3SG.A-know ‘John knows [that I'm not going to drink it].’ (Cumberland 2005: 415)
This matches the SOV and OSV orders that are possible for transitive clauses with intransitive nominal objects.
(c) John tʰápa žé a-0-0-pʰá John ball that hit-3SG.P-3SG.A-hit ‘John hit the ball.’ (Cumberland 2005: 374) (d) tʰápa žé John a-0-0-pʰá ball that John hit-3SG.P-3SG.A-hit ‘John hit the ball.’ (Cumberland 2005: 374)
Assiniboine is coded 1.
Djeebbana (ISO 639-3: djj, Glottolog: djee1236)
Word order is relatively free in Djeebbana, with several unmarked orders possible for nominal objects (McKay 2000: 283–284). However, clausal objects must occur after the main verb, as in the example below.
N-bárdbana nja-rra-bé-na, nga-mi-Ila ka-kkó-ya 3-MIN.M-shallow 1-AUG-REAL-go-DIST.PST 1.MIN.A+3.MIN.O-see-DIST.PST 3.MIN.M-kó-lie ‘We went into shallow water and saw (a dugong (mlirnun)) lying (in the water eating grass).’ (McKay 2000: 311)
Because not all main clause orders are possible in complement clauses, Djeebbana is coded 0.
English (ISO 639-3: eng, Glottolog: stan1293)
I like apples. (nominal object) versus I like that you play the piano every morning.** (clausal object) are in the same position (SVO). English is coded 1.
Dryer, Matthew S. 1979. The positional tendencies of sentential noun phrases in Universal Grammar. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Hawkins, John A. 2014. Cross-linguistic variation and efficiency. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Schmidtke-Bode, Karsten & Holger Diessel. 2017. Cross-linguistic patterns in the structure, function, and position of (object) complement clauses, Linguistics, 55(1). 1–38.
Cumberland, Linda A. 2005. A grammar of Assiniboine: A Siouan language of the Northern Plains. Bloomington: Indiana University. (Doctoral dissertation.)
McKay, Graham. 2000. Ndjébbana. In R. M. W. Dixon & Barry Blake (eds), Handbook of Australian languages, 155–356. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
To display the datapoints for a particular language family on the map and on the classification tree, select the family then click "submit".
You may combine this variable with a different variable by selecting on in the list below and clicking "Submit".
| 0 | absent | 179 | |
| 1 | present | 1422 | |
| ? | Not known | 759 |
| Name | Glottocode | Family | Macroarea | Contributor | Value | Source | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Description
Map
Values