Genetic and areal stability of phrasal word order and its potential as a typological marker

This dissertation investigates, in several unrelated language families and stocks, the connection between several phrasal word order (PWO) patterns and three structural features (clausal alignment, head/dependent marking, and morphological complexity) for the purpose of establishing whether these phrasal word order patterns can be considered as typological markers. The study follows the theoretical postulates and the research methods proposed by Johanna Nichols (1992).; Three types of PWOs that do not correlate with the clausal word order (CWO) of verb and object, namely the order of adjectives and nouns, demonstratives and nouns, and intensifiers and adjectives, were compared to clausal alignment, head/dependent marking, and morphological complexity.; Frequency distributions of the three PWO features were consistent with previous studies in this area. Demonstrative-noun word order was found to be the most skewed, with 67 percent of languages showing pre-nominal demonstratives. Tests for genetic and areal stability indicated that the three PWO features behave differently than CWO. Adjective-noun order, demonstrative-noun order, and intensifier-adjective order are surprisingly to varying degrees more genetically stable than anticipated. All three of the PWO features were found to be less areally stable than CWO. Chi square analyses yielded significant results regarding the relationship between adjective-noun word order and morphological complexity, as well as between intensifier-adjective word order and morphological complexity. Based on an evaluation of the geographical distribution of the PWO features, it was concluded that adjective-noun word order demonstrated a larger than continental scale of patterning. The results of demonstrative-noun word order and intensifier word order for geographical patterning were less revealing. Based on the overall results on frequency distribution, levels of genetic and areal stability, clustering of features, and scale of geographical patterning, it was concluded that adjective noun word order has the potential to be a typological marker as defined by Nichols.; Contributions were made to the field of typology, areal linguistics, and historical linguistics including remote relations. Among the suggestions for future research were: continuing the exploration for typological markers, expanding the resources available for study, investigating demonstrative word order in residual zone settings and examining further the relationship between PWO and morphological complexity.