  Ferrer-i-Cancho (2015) presents a mathematical model of both the synchronic
and diachronic nature of word order based on the assumption that memory costs
are a never decreasing function of distance and a few very general linguistic
assumptions. However, even these minimal and seemingly obvious assumptions are
not as safe as they appear in light of recent typological and psycholinguistic
evidence. The interaction of word order and memory has further depths to be
explored.
