Word Order and Clauses

Clauses

Canonical clause: VOS

Predicator – Complement(s) – Subject

Imperative: VO

Predicator – Complement(s)

Passive: VSO

Predicator – (Subject) – Complement(s)

Topicalisation: TVOS

Topic (Predicator/Complement/Subject) – Predicator – Complement(s) – Subject

Case word order:

Topic – Accusative – Instrumental – Benefactive – Causative – Genitive* – Locative – Translative – Nominative

*Genitive, when used to indicate possessive, can be placed before any noun.

This word order is not obligatory and is often broken, however there is a trend towards this order.

The ‘agreement’ between inflection and word order provides redundancy.

Subordinate and coordinate clauses follow the same word order as main clauses.

Recursivity is exceedingly rare.