Basic word order

References to basic word order were made in Chapter 1 in relation to the types of language universals and sampling procedures. Basic word order at the clausal level consists of the three major constituents, S, O and V. There are six logical permutations of S, O and V, each of which has indeed been attested in the languages of the world (see 1.1 for actual examples). ¹ Basic word order is also observed at other grammatical levels (e.g. phrasal) as will be discussed below. The importance of basic word order study in the development of modern linguistic typology cannot be overstated with the appearance in 1963 of Greenberg’s seminal paper on word order typology, which not only generated insightful statements about the nature of human language which have stood the test of time but also laid the solid ground-work for linguistic typology as is practised today.