Of the 24 mathematically possible orders of the four elements demonstrative, numeral, adjective, and noun, only 14 appear to be attested in the languages of the world. Some of these are unexpected under Greenberg's Universal 20. Here it is proposed that the actually attested orders, and none of the unattested ones, are derivable from a single, universal, order of Merge (Dem > Num > Adj > N) and from independent conditions on phrasal movement.

Although Modern French was originally taken to lack the “restructuring” phenomenon altogether, four different “restructuring” effects have more recently been claimed to exist in the language: en and y climbing, quantifier climbing, adverb climbing, and long movement in ‘easy-to-please’ constructions. Evidence discussed in this article shows that only en and y climbing and long movement in ‘easy-to-please’ constructions are bona fide instances of “restructuring” in French.