Eliciting Data for the OV/VO Alternation

Nina Adam

Abstract:

This descriptive paper presents an ongoing process of data collection for the cross-linguistic documentation and study of syntactic phenomena using a specifically designed questionnaire. The study is part of the project Consequences of head argument order for syntax (CHAOS), which is part of the Collaborative Research Centre Limits of Variability in Language: Cognitive, Computational, and Grammatical Aspects at the University of Potsdam, funded by the German Research Association (DFG). The overall goal is to collect high-quality data for languages from around the world and to use this data to test hypotheses of cross-linguistic correlations with the relative order of transitive verbs (V) and their objects (O). The study describes the methodological background and the questionnaire. It illustrates the data collection process with the help of data from selected languages, including Chinese, Czech, Marathi, Nepali, Oromo, Upper Sorbian, and Tunen.

Keywords: word order correlations; head-directionality; data collection; elicitation; questionnaire