The parallelism between NPs and clauses in terms of pragmatic effects on word order

Abstract

This article argues that the two word order typologies at the clause level (V, S, O) and at the noun phrase level ([D]emonstrative, [A]djective, [N]oun) are both crucially motivated by the same two principles, that is, the principle of Semantic Head-Proximity (SHP) and the pragmatic Identifiability Precedence Principle (IPP). The interaction of the SHP and the IPP can explain several major left-right asymmetries of word order variation, such as the observation that the order of pre-nominal modifiers is usually fixed while that of post-nominal ones is fairly variable. In particular, to comprehensively account for the order of modifiers, an extended IPP is posited, which states that the higher the degree of identifiability (definiteness, etc.) a modifier contributes to its matrix NP, the stronger is its tendency to appear earlier.