Verb movement in Biblical Aramaic: Verb-Subject-Object and related word orders in BA

Abstract

According the philologist Joseph Greenberg (1978:76) all languages may (superficially) be classified into six groups on the criterion of word order, viz S-V-O, S-O-V, V-S-O, V-O-S, OV-S and O-S-V. The grammatical relations S, V and O are used in combination to express six types of word order. All these word orders feature in BA. No unmarked word order of BA, as a non-living language, has yet been found. This chapter will attempt to identify the unmarked word order peculiar to BA and secondly to explain the occurrence of the remaining five word orders in BA within the principles of economy dictated by Chomsky (1992). These two objectives are supported by the assumptions made and the inferences drawn in chapters 3 and 4. The various word orders will be explained in terms of a taxonomic exposition of different types of sentence and classes of conjugation.