The way constituents are ordered in a linguistic expression is determined by general principles and language specific rules. This article is mostly concerned with general ordering principles and the three main linguistic categories that are relevant for constituent order research: formal, functional and semantic categories. The general principles appear to be motivated by cognitive considerations, which are deemed to facilitate language processing and which can all be regarded as manifestations of iconicity: non-arbitrary relations between the form and the content of a linguistic expression. Three major iconic ordering principles are the principles of Domain Integrity, Scope, and Head Proximity.
The final version of this article can be found in: James D. Wright (editor-in-chief), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition, Vol. 25, 644–656. Oxford: Elsevier. Available in both print and online editions.
Available online at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080970868530311
Abstract
The way constituents are ordered in a linguistic expression is determined by general principles and language specific rules. This article is mostly concerned with general ordering principles and the three main linguistic categories that are relevant for constituent order research: formal, functional and semantic categories. The general principles appear to be motivated by cognitive considerations, which are deemed to facilitate language processing and which can all be regarded as manifestations of iconicity: non-arbitrary relations between the form and the content of a linguistic expression. Three major iconic ordering principles are the principles of Domain Integrity, Scope, and Head Proximity.
