The Classification of Constituent Order Generalizations and Diachronic Explanation

1. Introduction Greenberg's (1963) constituent order generalizations have long been a battleground for opposing modes of linguistic explanation. Diachronic explanations for some of the generalizations begin with Givon's pioneering work (1975, 1979) and are the focus of Aristar (1991). The much larger catalogue of proposed explanations based on synchronic considerations-including constraints imposed by language processing or discourse function-range from Hawkins' (e.g. 1983) processing-based accounts to much work in the generative tradition, most recently Kayne (1994) and research inspired by Kayne's antisymmetry program. Apart from etiology, the Greenbergian

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