On implicational and distributional universals of word order

Abstract

This paper argues that the theory of Universal Grammar must include both implicational universals and universals of language distribution in the description and explanation of word order. Implicational universals are of the form: if a language has some property (or properties) P, then it will also have some property (or properties) Q. These ‘if P then Q’ statements require that a language must not have property P without property Q (*P –O).