Chapter 21. Prosody and head directionality

The relationship between prosodic encliticization of the conjunctive coordinator and OV word order (or the equivalent correlation between VO and procliticization) is a strong descriptive universal. Namely, if a language shows prosodic encliticization (prosodic attachment after the initial coordinand), as in “John-and Peter”, then that language is necessarily OV, as is the case in Japanese. However, if a language has procliticization of the conjunctive coordinator, as in “John and-Peter”, we cannot say whether it is OV or VO, since, for example, English, Spanish and Basque display procliticization but English and Spanish are VO while Basque is OV. Using experimental data from speakers of convergent (OV – enclisis and VO – proclisis) languages such as Japanese, English, and Spanish and non-convergent (OV – proclisis) languages such as Basque, the study addresses the strength of the relationship between the encliticization of conjunctive coordination and word order in the mind of native speakers of these four languages.