Final-Over-Final Condition

<b>An examination of the evidence for and the theoretical implications of a universal word order constraint with data from a wide range of languages.</b><p>This book presents evidence for a universal word order constraint the Final-over-Final Condition (FOFC) and discusses the theoretical implications of this phenomenon. FOFC is a syntactic condition that disallows structures where a head-initial phrase is contained in a head-final phrase in the same extended projection/domain. The authors argue that FOFC is a linguistic universal not just a strong tendency and not a constraint on processing. They discuss the effects of the universal in various domains including the noun phrase the adjective phrase the verb phrase and the clause. The book draws on data from a wide range of languages including Hindi Turkish Basque Finnish Afrikaans German Hungarian French English Italian Romanian Arabic Hebrew Mandarin Pontic Greek Bagirmi Dholuo and Thai. </p><p>FOFC the authors argue is important because it is the only known example of a word order asymmetry pertaining to the order of heads. As such it has significant repercussions for theories connecting the narrow syntax to linear order.</p>