Doug Ball began conlanging in 1994, primarily working on a language he calls Skerre. His conlanging interest led him to discover the field of linguistics and ultimately to a career as an academic linguist. Holding degrees from the University of Rochester (BA) and Stanford University (PhD), he is currently a member of the Department of English and Linguistics faculty at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. There, he teaches classes on general linguistics, theoretical phonology, theoretical morphology, and theoretical syntax as well as Native American and Polynesian languages.
Abstract
As part of an effort to encourage conlangers to explicate the syntaxes of their languages, this paper discusses several of the most common linear order generalizations found in natural languages. Among those discussed are the linear order generalizations surrounding heads, the order of verbal arguments, ordering of elements with certain information statuses, and ordering by “weight”.
Version History
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.