  Dependency length minimization is a universally observed quantitative
property of natural languages. However, the extent of dependency length
minimization, and the cognitive mechanisms through which the language processor
achieves this minimization remain unclear. This research offers mechanistic
insights by postulating that moving a short preverbal constituent next to the
main verb explains preverbal constituent ordering decisions better than global
minimization of dependency length in SOV languages. This approach constitutes a
least-effort strategy because it's just one operation but simultaneously
reduces the length of all preverbal dependencies linked to the main verb. We
corroborate this strategy using large-scale corpus evidence across all seven
SOV languages that are prominently represented in the Universal Dependency
Treebank. These findings align with the concept of bounded rationality, where
decision-making is influenced by 'quick-yet-economical' heuristics rather than
exhaustive searches for optimal solutions. Overall, this work sheds light on
the role of bounded rationality in linguistic decision-making and language
evolution.
