Functional constraints on inversion in English and Farsi

Abstract

In this paper we demonstrate that discourse-functional constraints on inversion in Farsi correspond to those on inversion in English despite differences in word order. Farsi canonically exhibits SXV word order, but permits a marked ordering of XSV. Although this word order is like that of English topicalization, it does not share the discourse function of topicalization in English; instead, Farsi XSV word order corresponds functionally to English inversion. In both languages inversion requires the preposed constituent to represent more familiar information in the discourse than does the postposed constituent; moreover, in both languages inversion serves to reverse the relative ordering of these constituents. The difference in word order between inversion in Farsi and inversion in English reduces to a difference in the position of the verb, and reflects independent syntactic constraints. Hence, Farsi XSV word order and English XVS word order represent a single inversion construction.