Editing Navajo language (section)

===Typology===
Navajo is difficult to classify in terms of broad [[morphological typology]]: it relies heavily on [[affix]]es—mainly prefixes—like [[agglutinative language|agglutinative]] languages,<ref>{{Harvnb|Young|Morgan|1992|p=841}}</ref> but these affixes are joined in unpredictable, overlapping ways that make them difficult to segment, a trait of [[fusional language|fusional]] languages.<ref name="Mithun 323">{{Harvnb|Mithun|2001|p=323}}</ref> In general, Navajo verbs contain more morphemes than nouns do (on average, 11 for verbs compared to 4–5 for nouns), but noun morphology is less transparent.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bowerman|Levinson|2001|p=239}}</ref> Depending on the source, Navajo is either classified as a fusional,<ref name="Mithun 323"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Sloane|2001|p=442}}</ref> agglutinative, or even [[polysynthetic language|polysynthetic]] language, as it shows mechanisms from all three.<ref name="Johansen Ritzker 421">{{Harvnb|Johansen|Ritzker|2007|p=421}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Bowerman|Levinson|2001|p=238}}</ref>

In terms of basic [[word order]], Navajo has been classified as a [[subject–object–verb]] language.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wals.info/valuesets/81A-nav|publisher=WALS|access-date=September 1, 2014|title=Datapoint Navajo / Order of Subject, Object and Verb|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826121256/http://wals.info/valuesets/81A-nav|archive-date=August 26, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Tomlin|first=Russell S.|title=Basic Word Order: Functional Principles|year=2014|journal=Routledge Library Editions Linguistics B: Grammar|page=115}}</ref> However, some speakers order the subject and object based on "noun ranking". In this system, nouns are ranked in three categories—humans, animals, and inanimate objects—and within these categories, nouns are ranked by strength, size, and intelligence. Whichever of the subject and object has a higher rank comes first. As a result, the agent of an action may be syntactically ambiguous.<ref name="Young Morgan 1992 902 903">{{Harvnb|Young|Morgan|1992|pp=902–903}}</ref> The highest rank position is held by humans and lightning.<ref>{{Harvnb|Young|Morgan|1987|pp=85–86}}</ref> Other linguists such as [[Eloise Jelinek]] consider Navajo to be a [[Non-configurational language|discourse configurational language]], in which word order is not fixed by syntactic rules, but determined by pragmatic factors in the communicative context.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fernald|Platero|2000|pp=252–287}}</ref>