Linguistic research shows that where in a sentence words are placed depends on their length

What is it about?

We explore the principle of "end-weight," the tendency for longer elements to appear at the end of a sentence. Extending this concept, we propose that it leads to the addition of grammatical endings that are not obligatory to words in sentence-final position, so that the words become more "heavy". The endings we investigate are currently in flux in different West Germanic languages like Northern Low German and Frisian, or they were in flux in Old, Middle and Early Modern English. Examples include noun and verb endings, possessive pronouns, and additional grammatical words. We find that the impact of end-weight varies, with the most significant effects seen when elements are placed right at the end.

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Photo by Keagan Henman on Unsplash

Photo by Keagan Henman on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The traditional view of how language is produced considers that word choice and grammar come first, and that the level of pronunciation is merely secondary, that means that it does not affect the structure of a sentence. This study adds to the growing body of research showing that this view is too simplistic: The preference for phonological weight at the sentence end does attract grammatical markers that are otherwise optional. We can thus see that language does not consist of isolated, independently working subsystems, but that different types of information interact with each other.