order (n./v.)

A term used in LINGUISTICS to refer to the pattern of relationships constituting or UNDERLYING a LINEAR SEQUENCE of linguistic UNITS. Sometimes, no distinction is made between the sequential arrangement of observable FORMAL ELEMENTS (defined, for example, in terms of SURFACE STRUCTURE) and the abstract pattern of relationships assumed to underlie the surface arrangement: notions such as ‘WORD-ORDER’, ‘MORPHEME order’, ‘SUBJECT–VERB–OBJECT order’, etc., are often seen in this way. Usually, however, a systematic distinction is made between these two LEVELS of analysis, the former being referred to as SEQUENCE, and the latter as ‘order’. That there is no necessary one-to-one correspondence between surface sequence and underlying order can be shown in such sentences as She took off her hat/She took her hat off/Her hat she took off, etc., where the same basic subject–verb–object order is REALIZED in different surface sequences. This notion – that there is an underlying abstract ‘ordering’ of elements from which several surface arrangements can be derived – is a fundamental insight of TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR. In this approach, also, the term ordering is used to refer to the application of the RULES of a grammar in a given succession, a crucial principle which prevents the generation of UNACCEPTABLE STRINGS, and enables SIMPLER analyses to be made. Several specific ordering conventions have been suggested. In natural generative PHONOLOGY, the no-ordering condition requires that no extrinsic ordering of rules be permitted.

order of mention In PSYCHOLINGUISTICS, a term referring to a use of language where the order of events in the outside world is paralleled by the order in the sequence of SEMANTIC UNITS within the utterance. For example: After John shut the door, he spoke follows order of mention; Before John spoke, he shut the door does not.