Thanks for your support, Glen
My question actually reflects my own main interest, grammatical
structure and logic.
But I also think comparison of grammatical structure could be one of
several tools used to group languages into sub-groups.
The difference between the Afro-Asitaic group and the rest of
Nostratic in this respect is interesting, because sov/vso is not only
a difference of ordering werbs, actually it is two quite different
philosofies of listing elements and connecting them together
logically.
SOV: Prinsiple: First list elements/properties, then make order. Let
me take an example using english words: The big boy the small ball
the wall over kicks. (The big boy kicks the small ball over the wall)
VSO: Prinsiple: Make order first. Then list elemets/properties: Kicks
the boy big the ball small over the wall.
Within a sentence the verb together with prepositions, case endings,
postpositions are the ordering elements.
The prinsiples also affect connection of sentences:
Example: I saw that the big boy kicked the small ball over the wall.
SOV: I The big boy the small ball over the wall kicked-that saw.
VSO: Saw I that kicked the boy big the ball small over the wall.
Because the difference in prinsiple between typical VSO and typical
SOV is so great, i think It is worth considering this difference
between Aphro-Asiatic and other branches, when making comparisons,
and proposing subgroups.
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