Universal Supergrammar: *231 in neutral word order
David P Medeiros
October 2021 

I present a model of neutral word order options in natural language. The core proposal is that languages share a universal base structure with inherent head-complement-specifier linear order, and a universal "supergrammar" maps this underlying order to the set of typologically possible information-neutral surface orders, consisting of its stack-sortable (231-avoiding) permutations. The mapping procedure can be formulated either as a parsing algorithm based on stack-sorting, or as a generative model involving postorder and preorder traversals of freely-generated n-ary branching trees. This single-principle universal grammar explains and unifies some well-known word order universals, while also generating phenomena that challenge traditional approaches. Applications include Cinque's version of Greenberg's Universal 20, the Final-Over-Final Condition, a modified Head Movement Constraint allowing attested long head movement, English Affix Hopping, Germanic cross-serial subject-verb dependencies, and Icelandic Stylistic Fronting.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/006229 (please use that when you cite this article)
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keywords:	word order universals, final-over-final condition, universal 20, cross-serial dependencies, head movement constraint, long head movement, stylistic fronting, affix hopping, syntax
previous versions:	v1 [September 2021]
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