The Interaction of Case, Word Order and Prominence: Language Production and Comprehension in a Cross-linguistic Perspective

Abstract

We introduce the central topics of this volume, case, word order and prominence (i.e., an element’s ranking on a hierarchy of semantic features) and we illustrate their interaction through discussion of an example of a ‘who-did-what-to-whom’-ambiguity in Dutch. In the second part of the chapter we provide an overview of the different chapters included in the volume. From the different contributions it becomes clear that in each of the languages discussed in this volume case, word order and prominence are essential cues for speaker and hearer.