Re: [tied] Got to thinkin' about word order

----- Original Message -----
From: "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 27, 2003 4:55 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Got to thinkin' about word order



> Yes, but aren't you admitting then that V-Neg is still found in the _majority_ of cases? You know me by now. I keep myself aware of the difference between absolute truths and varying probabilities. It would seem to me that Occam would go with V-Neg nonetheless given these stats. Granted 66.6% still opens things up to alternatives.

Less than that, in fact, since S-O-Neg-V and S-O-V-Neg don't exhaust the theoretical possibilities (there remain a few very rare but attested types like Neg-S-O-V). S-O-V-Neg was found in 64 out of 117 cases (54.7%). Still a majority, to be sure, but neither overwhelming nor particularly significant is statistical terms (especially in view of the fact that Dryer's numbers are derived from a sample that may not be fully representative of the languages of the world).

Piotr