Indo-European linguistics and classical philology
M. A. Molina Marked word order OSV in Hittite, its functions and regularity (pp. 655–663)
Author
M. A. Molina (Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences)
Pages\n 655–663
Summary\n
As is well-known, basic, i.e. unmarked, word order in Hittite is SOV, but OSV clauses are considered as regular strategy related to information structure. But corpus approach allows us to see that this word order shows too low frequency for being a regular strategy of that kind. Besides, only some clauses with the OSV word order can be related to the focus position and semantics (at least in the Middle Hittite letters). Other instances can be explained purely syntactically, and there are clauses where we cannot find an explanation either by means of the information structure or syntactic reasons. The article describes the results of a corpus analysis of OSV parameter in the syntactically marked up database of the Middle Hittite letters. In the nearest future the Hittite instructions and prayers as well as the New Hittite letters material are planned to be marked up and to be analysed as for OSV frequency and semantics.
Keywords\n
Syntax, Hittite, word order, information structure, corpus approach, syntactically marked up database.
References\n
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