Dislocated imperatives in the Indo-European prayer

Abstract

This study examines correlations between word order in the clause (syntactic order) and discourse arrangement (order between discourse constituents). It is part of a larger effort to understand topic continuity and clause cohesive devices as they affect syntax in the conservative genre, prayer. Using the older IE prayer as a cohesive structural unit for studying word order variation, this study finds that there is a relationship between word order in the clause and patterns of discourse arrangement. The relationship emerges, however, not in the order between clause types (medial and final or initial and medial) in storyline chaining, but in the order between the discourse functions of the prayer, the Basis and the (imperative) Request. This confirms Longacre's findings that discourse order types correlate with word order type.