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3.1 Introduction
Chapter 3. Basic Word Order
This chapter addresses the issue of basic word order. This issue is somewhat complex,
since the subject may occupy one of three different sentential positions and since subject
position is often constrained by clause type. While chapter 4 will provide a syntactic
analysis of declaratives, this chapter focuses on describing the basic word order patterns
of Marshallese sentences and examining the phonological, semantic and syntactic factors
that affect subject position. I will argue that the subject surfaces in a particular position as
a result of either its information status or the information status of the predicate, although
the syntax prohibits the subject from surfacing in some positions in some types of
sentences. I will show that topicalized and focused subjects appear sentence initially, that
neutral subjects appear sentence internally, and that subjects appear sentence finally as a
result of topicalization or focalization of the predicate. Further, I will show that sentences
with final subjects have a different phonological status than the other two types of
sentences.
This chapter proceeds as follows. In section 3.2.1, I catalogue the positions of the
Marshallese subject in different types of transitive sentences, including sentences with
only one internal DP argument; those with both an internal DP and internal PP argument;
and sentences with a CP argument. Section 3.2.2 examines intransitives, including those
with and without prepositional phrases. The examination of transitive and intransitive
sentences reveals that, while the subject may be sentence internal in intransitives, it may
not be internal in transitives. In section 3.3, I turn to the phonology and semantics of
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