ABSTRACT
One current hypothesis about word order typology in principles-and-parameters grammar
attempts to show that all languages have the same order in the base, and that the
difference between head-initial and head-final word order types arises from parameter-
ization with respect to movement possibilities (see, for example, Kayne 1994, Zwart
1997, and Fukui & Takano 1998, among many others). This is opposed to a more
traditional view in which the parameterization is more direct, in terms of leftward or
rightward direction for complements. The idea that all languages share the same base is
often known as the Universal Base Hypothesis, and in practice it has been allied with
what I will call the Linear Correspondence Hypothesis, or LCH (echoing Kayne’s 1994
Linear Correspondence Axiom, or LCA), the idea that linear order is uniquely determined
by some version of asymmetric c-command. In Kayne’s version, Specs always
asymmetrically c-command heads, and heads always asymmetrically c-command
complements, so UG forces all languages to have Spec-Head-Complement order,
corresponding to the traditional SVO type.
