Information Structure and the Agent-First Preference:A Corpus-Based Case Study of a Free Word Order Language

This paper investigates correlations between information structure and constituent order patterns in transitive clauses extracted from recorded texts in Jaminjung-Ngaliwurru, an Australian language of the Mirndi family without a dominant constituent order at clause level. In transitive clauses with two overt arguments, and considering only linear order, the findings support a widely reported cross-linguistic preference for orders where the agent precedes the patient. However, the prevalence of agent-first orders is an epiphenomenon of two related preferences: a high probability for topics to be agents, and a preference for a rheme-internal placement of the patient, in contiguity with the verb. The result is that agents, in the case that they are overt at all, tend to be placed in rheme-external position, usually as initial topics.