Object–subject–verb word order
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Linguistic typology |
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Morphological |
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Morphosyntactic |
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Word order |
Lexicon |
Word order |
English equivalent |
Proportion of languages |
Example languages | |
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SOV | "Cows grass eat." | 45% | , etc | |
SVO | "Cows eat grass." | 42% | Chinese, English, French, Hausa, Hebrew, Arabic, Italian, Malay, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, Thai, Vietnamese, etc | |
VSO | "Eat cows grass." | 9% | Biblical Hebrew, Classical Arabic, Filipino, Geʽez, Irish, Māori, Tuareg-Berber, Welsh | |
VOS | "Eat grass cows." | 3% | Car, Fijian, Malagasy, Qʼeqchiʼ, Terêna | |
OVS | "Grass eat cows." | 1% | Hixkaryana, Urarina | |
OSV | "Grass cows eat." | 0% | Tobati, Warao | |
Frequency distribution of word order in languages surveyed by Russell S. Tomlin in the 1980s[1][2] ( ) |
In linguistic typology, object–subject–verb (OSV) or object–agent–verb (OAV) is a classification of languages, based on whether the structure predominates in pragmatically neutral expressions. An example of this would be "Oranges Sam ate."
Unmarked word order
Natural languages
OSV is rarely used in unmarked sentences, which use a normal word order without emphasis. Most languages that use OSV as their default word order come from the
anana
pineapple
nota
I
apa
fetch
I fetch a pineapple
British Sign Language (BSL) normally uses topic–comment structure, but its default word order when topic–comment structure is not used is OSV.
Marked word order
Various languages allow OSV word order but only in marked sentences, which emphasise part or all of the sentence.
Arabic
إِيَّاكَ
Iyyāka
2MSG.ACC
نَعْبُدُ
naʿbudu
1PL.worship.IPFV.IND
وَإِيَّاكَ
wa=iyyāka
and=2MSG.ACC
نَسْتَعِينُ.
nastaʿīn.
1PL.ask.for.help.IPFV.IND
You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help.
The construction is less used in
Chinese
Passive constructions in Chinese follow an OSV (OAV) pattern through the use of the particle 被:
这个
Zhège
this
橘子
júzi
orange
被
bèi
by
我
wǒ
me
吃
chī
eat
掉
diào
了
le
PFV
This orange was eaten by me.
This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. (September 2022) |
English
In English, object-subject-verb order is atypical but can be used for
Finnish
Finnish has a remarkably lax word order[5] and so emphasis on the object is often marked simply by putting it first in the sentence.[6] The word by word translation in example (1) would be "you I love!" and expresses a contrast to maybe loving someone else.
Sinua
2SG.PTV
minä
1SG.NOM
rakastan!
1SG.love.PRS.IND
"I love you!"
This word order is totally natural and quite often used for emphasis. Example (2) expresses the contrast of refusing to eat something else (like something more healthy).
Suklaata
chocolate.PTV
se
3.SG
kyllä
INT
suostuu
3SG.consent.PRS.IND
syömään
eat.ILL
"He instead consents to eating chocolate."
Hebrew
In
Hungarian
In Hungarian, OSV emphasises the subject:
A szócikket én szerkesztettem = The article/I/edited (It was I, not somebody else, who edited the article).
Korean and Japanese
Korean and Japanese have SOV by default, but since they are topic-prominent languages, they often seem to be OSV when the object is topicalized. Here is an example in Korean:
그
geu
that
사과–는
sagwa-neun
apple-TOP
Object
제–가
je-ga
I.POL-NOM
Subject
먹–었–어–요
meog-eoss-eo-yo
eat-PST-DEC-POL
Verb
As for the apple, I ate it. (or) The apple, I ate.
An almost identical syntax is possible in Japanese:
その
sono
that
りんご゠は
ringo-wa
apple-TOP
Object
私゠が
watashi-ga
I.POL-NOM
Subject
As for the apple, I ate it. (or) The apple, I ate.
Malayalam
OSV is one of the permissible word orders in
Portuguese
OSV is possible in Portuguese to emphasize the object.
De
of
maçã
apple
Object
eu
I
Subject
não
NEG
gosto
like-1SG
Verb
I do not like apple
Turkish
OSV is used in Turkish to emphasize the subject:
yemeğ-i
meal-ACC
ben
I
pişir-di-m
cook-PST-1SG
It was I, not somebody else, who cooked the meal.
See also
- Subject–object–verb
- Subject–verb–object
- Object–verb–subject
- Verb–object–subject
- Verb–subject–object
- Yoda, a popular Star Wars character who speaks in the object–subject–verb word order
- Yoda conditions - a style of writing conditionals in computer programming languages
References
- ^ Meyer, Charles F. (2010). Introducing English Linguistics (Student ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- OCLC 13423631.
- ^ ISBN 0-582-24691-1
- ^ "Word order and focus". Retrieved 11 May 2023.
- ^ "Sanajärjestys jäsentää tekstiä - Kielikello".
- ^ "Word order and basic noun cases — Hyvää Päivää Suomi documentation".
- PMID 14700372.