I will not let it lie

What self-respecting linguist would name a law that translates to Behaghel's Law of Growing Members (Harris & Campbell, 1995)?

For the record, in its native language, it is called das Gesetz der wachsenden Glieder and states that "where units of equal status are conjoined (or contrasted) the longest comes last in the sentence."

Reference:

  • Harris, Alice C & Lyle Campbell (1995) Historical syntax in cross-linguistic perspective. Cambridge: CUP

[Update (21/02/05 22.34): Apparently the original German is as ambiguous as the English translation...]


Will you be the first person to respond?

Leave a Reply

or use a social network to log in

Comments RSS Subscribe to the Comments RSS.
Trackback Leave a trackback from your site.
Trackback URL: http://pandammonium.org/2005/02/20/i-will-not-let-it-lie/trackback/