| level | unit | linguistic operations |
|---|---|---|
| discourse | text | rhetorical operations |
| syntax | complex clause | syntactic operations |
| simple clause | ||
| syntagma | ||
| morphology | word form | inflectional operations |
| stem | operations of stem formation | |
| morpheme/root | [none] |
On the whole, the higher the construction in an immediate constituent hierarchy, the freer the order of the constituent elements. It has been seen that practically all languages have some freedom of order regarding subject and predicate as a whole; whereas only a small minority have variant order in genitive constructions, and then almost always along with other differences, not merely a difference of order. Within morphological constructions, order is the most fixed of all.
(Greenberg 1963: 82)
Greenberg, Joseph H. 1963, „Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements.“ Greenberg, Joseph H. (ed.), Universals of language. Report of a conference held at Dobbs Ferry, New York, April 13-15, 1961. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 58-90.
More goes on upstairs than downstairs.
(Ross 1973:397)
Ross, John R. 1973, "The penthouse principle and the order of constituents." Corum et al. (eds.), You take the high node and I'll take the low node. Papers from the Comparative Syntax Festival. Chicago: CLS; 397-422.