Karl,
If we do speak in terms of VSO or SVO etc., all that matters is statistics.
Statistically, Hebrew is VSO. It would be perfectly legitimate to
doubt that languages are to be categorised as "VSO", or that
statistics are relevant, but then the entire concept is gone and we
have to take a totally different method of describing syntax.
We could.
What we can *not* do however, is to say that "Hebrew can be both VSO
and SVO" or something like that, given the statistics that are simply
there.
Of course Hebrew allows for variation, but what we have to look at is
when this variation happens (in prose that is). It doesn't happen at
random. I am convinced that word order in prose is quite relevant to
syntax.
What did of course happen is that in later stages of Hebrew the
language turned into SVO, so that modern Hebrew is SVO.
Best regards,
herman
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