Givón’s chapter presents an evolutionary hypothesis suggesting that the earliest rigid word order in human language must have been (S)OV. The hypothesis is supported first by synchronic distributional data suggesting that the vast majority of known language families can be easily reconstructed to SOV on purely internal grounds. Unlike the vast majority of VO languages, SOV languages show no reconstructible traces of any prior VO word order. What is more, a non-contact-induced drift from VO to OV has yet to be conclusively documented. The chapter offers a cultural-communicative explanation of why the early evolved word order of human language must have been SOV, as well as why it has been drifting away from that early order ever since, first to free (pragmatically determined) word order, then to V-first (VSO, VOS), and eventually to SVO. Why some languages have never undergone this drift remains an open question, perhaps related to isolation and/or cultural conservatism.

The debate on modern Chinese being SVO or SOV is facing a dilemma: the word order is SVO in an unmarked declarative sentence in Chinese, while Chinese exhibits many features shared by SOV languages. To tackle this difficult situation, researchers should focus on language types, but not the relative orders of subject, verb, and object. Based on the usage of modern Chinese, we have checked ten universals generalized in Greenberg (1963) which are relevant to this topic. It is shown that 90% of the universals support Chinese being a SOV language, and only one universal is on the SVO side. Modern Chinese is therefore argued to be located very close to the SOV end of a continuum.

This chapter is about media planning and budgeting in advertising. Many industries spend as much as one-third of their profit (not revenue) on media and promotions. A media plan that is not well thought out and executed will affect the company’s bottom line very quickly. Although this chapter is principally about media planning and budgeting, it is also about communication objectives and consumer behaviour. If we do not understand where and when consumers buy our product or service, we will not be able to place and time our advertisement to best influence them as well. If we understand these, then we can decide on the most cost-effective channel, the best time and the ideal frequency to reach them with the right media vehicles. Factoring into this decision is whether the organisation wants to grow. If so, then being able to reach as many consumers as possible becomes important aided by having distinctive creative assets and excess share of voice. Each of these decisions has implications for the budget and so media planning and budgeting is quite a complex exercise. And this complexity is compounded as more online channels and platforms become available, although the advent of programmatic media buying improves the efficiency of ad placements, notwithstanding its weaknesses.