Subjectverbobject

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Inlinguistictypology,subjectverbobject(SVO)isasentencestructurewherethesubjectcomesfirst,theverbsecond,andtheobjectthird.
Languagesmaybeclassifiedaccordingtothedominantsequenceoftheseelements.Thelabelisoftenusedforergativelanguageswhichdonot
havesubjects,buthaveanagentverbobjectorder.
SVOisthemostcommonorderbynumberofspeakers,andthesecondmostcommonorderbynumberofknownlanguages,afterSOV.
Together,SVOandSOVaccountformorethan75%oftheworld'slanguages.[3]ItisalsothemostcommonorderdevelopedinCreole
languages,suggestingthatitmaybesomehowmoreinitially'obvious'tohumanpsychology.[4]

Word
order

English
equivalent

Proportion
oflanguages

Example
languages

SOV "Shehimloves." 45%

Pashto,Latin,Japanese,Afrikaans

SVO "Sheloveshim." 42%

English,Hausa,Mandarin,Russian

VSO "Lovesshehim." 9%

BiblicalHebrew,Irish,Filipino,Tuareg

VOS "Loveshimshe." 3%

Malagasy,Baure

LanguagesregardedasSVOinclude:Albanian,Arabic,Assyrian(VSOandVOSarealsofollowed,dependingontheperson),Berber,
OVS "Himlovesshe." 1%
Apala?,Hixkaryana?
Bulgarian,Chinese,English,Estonian,Filipino,Finnish(butseebelow),French,Kurdish,Ganda,Greek,Hausa,ModernHebrew,Italian,
OSV "Himsheloves." 0%
Warao
Javanese,Kashmiri,Khmer,Latvian(butSOViftheobjectisapronoun),Macedonian,Polish,Kashubian,Portuguese,Quiche,Romanian,
Rotuman,Russian(butseebelow),SerboCroatian,Spanish,Swahili,Thai,Vietnamese,YorubaandZuluareexamplesoflanguagesthatcan
Frequencydistributionofwordorderinlanguages
followanSVOpattern.TheRomancelanguagesalsofollowSVOconstruction,exceptforcertainconstructionsinmanyoftheminwhicha
surveyedbyRussellS.Tomlinin1980s. [1][2]
pronounfunctionsastheobject(e.g.French:jet'aime,Italian:(io)tiamoorSpanish:(yo)teamo,meaning"Iyoulove"inEnglish).Allofthe
ScandinavianlanguagesfollowthisorderalsobutchangetoVSOwhenaskingaquestion.ArabicandHebrewwilloccasionallyuseanSVO
patternwithsentenceswithsubjectpronouns(e.g.Arabic,Hebrew:,lit."Iloveyou.").Howeverthesubjectpronounshereare
grammaticallyunnecessaryandmostotherconstructionssuggestthatbothlanguagesareVSOlanguagesattheircore,thoughModernHebrewgenerallyusesSVOconstructionaswellasthemodernvarietiesofArabic.
OtherSVOlanguages,suchasEnglish,canalsouseanOSVstructureincertainliterarystyles,suchaspoetry.

Contents
1Properties
2Examplesentences
3Seealso
4Sources

Properties
Subjectverbobjectlanguagesalmostalwaysplacerelativeclausesafterthenounstheymodifyandadverbialsubordinatorsbeforetheclausemodified,withvarietiesofChinesebeingnotableexceptions.
AlthoughsomesubjectverbobjectlanguagesinWestAfrica,thebestknownbeingEwe,usepostpositionsinnounphrases,thevastmajorityofthemhaveprepositionsasinEnglish.Mostsubjectverbobjectlanguages
placegenitivesafterthenoun,butasignificantminority,includingthepostpositionalSVOlanguagesofWestAfrica,theHmongMienlanguages,someSinoTibetanlanguages,andEuropeanlanguagessuchasSwedish,
Danish,LithuanianandLatvian,haveprenominalgenitives[5](aswouldbeexpectedinaSOVlanguage).
OutsideEurope,subjectverbobjectlanguageshaveastrongtendencytoplaceadjectives,demonstrativesandnumeralsafterthenountheymodify,butChinese,Vietnamese,Indonesian,andMalayplacenumeralsbefore
nouns,asinEnglish.Somelinguistshavecometoviewthenumeralastheheadinthisrelationshiptofittherigidrightbranchingoftheselanguages.[6]
ThereisastrongtendencyforSOlanguagestohaveauxiliariesprecedemainverbs:Iamthinking.Heshouldreconsider.Etc.

Examplesentences
AnexampleofSVOorderinEnglishis:
Andyatecereal.

Thesituationismorecomplexinlanguagesthathavenowordorderimposedbytheirgrammar.Forexample,inRussian,FinnishandHungarianlanguagesbothVOandOVconstructsareincommonuse.Insome
languagessomewordorderisconsideredmore"natural"thenother.InPolishanSVOorderisbasicinanaffirmativesentenceanddifferentorderisusedtoeitheremphasizesomepartofitortoadaptittoabroader
contextlogic.Eg"Roweruciniekupi"(Iwon'tbuyyouabicycle),"Odpitejczekam"(I'vebeenwaitingsincefive).[7]
InTurkishwherenormallySOVisused,SVOcanbeusedtoemphasizetheverbinsomeinstances.Forexample,"JohnterkettiMary'yi"(Lit.John/left/Mary:JohnleftMary)istheanswertothequestion"WhatdidJohn
dowithMary?"insteadoftheregular[SOV]sentence"JohnMary'yiterketti"(Lit.John/Mary/left).
InGerman,Dutch,andKashmiriSVOinmainclausescoexistswithSOVinsubordinateclauses,asgiveninExample1belowandachangeinsyntaxforinstance,bybringinganadpositionalphrasetothefrontofthe
sentenceforemphasismayalsodictatetheuseofVSO,asinExample2.(SeeV2wordorder.)InKashmirithewordorderinembeddedclausesisconditionedbythecategoryofthesubordinatingconjunction,asin
Example3.
1. "Erwei,dassichjedenSonntagdasAutowasche"(German:"HeknowsIwashthecareverySunday",lit."Heknows,thatIeverySundaythecarwash").Cf.thesimplesentence"IchwaschedasAutojeden
Sonntag","IwashthecareverySunday".
2. "Elkezondagwasikdeauto"(Dutch:"EverySundayIwashthecar",lit."EverySundaywashIthecar")."Ikwasdeautoelkezondag"translatesperfectlyintoEnglish"IwashthecareverySunday",but,asaresult
ofchangingthesyntax,inversionSV>VStakesplace.
3. "myeeesphyikyiryithi.nitsitemyisciThydyikh"(Kashmiri:"Iwasafraidyoumightgivehimtheletter",lit."to.mewasworrylestyouto.himletterwill.give").Iftheembeddedclauseisintroducedbythe
transparentconjunctionzyitheSOVorderchangestoSVO."myeeesphyikyir(zyi)tsimaadyikhtemyisciThy".[8]
Englishdevelopedfromsuchareorderinglanguageandstillbearstracesofthiswordorder,forexampleinlocativeinversion("Inthegardensatacat")andsomeclausesbeginningwithnegativeexpressions:"only"
("onlythendowefindX"),"notonly"("notonlydidhestormawaybutalsoslammedthedoor"),"undernocircumstances"("undernocircumstancesarethestudentsallowedtouseamobilephone"),"onnoaccount"and
thelike.Inthesecasesdosupportmayormaynotberequired,dependingontheconstruction.

Seealso
Subjectobjectverb
Objectsubjectverb
Objectverbsubject
Verbobjectsubject
Verbsubjectobject
V2wordorder
Category:Subjectverbobjectlanguages

Sources
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

IntroducingEnglishLinguisticsInternationalStudentEditionbyCharlesF.Meyer(http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MWbrvUiYzSkC&pg=PA36)
RussellTomlin,"BasicWordOrder:FunctionalPrinciples",CroomHelm,London,1986,page22
Crystal,David(1997).TheCambridgeEncyclopediaofLanguage(2nded.).Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress.ISBN0521559677.
Diamond,Jared.TheRiseandFalloftheThirdChimpanzee.p.143
OrderofGenitiveandNoun(http://wals.info/feature/description/86)
Donohue,Mark"WordorderinAustronesianfromnorthtosouthandwesttoeast"inLinguisticTypology11(2007)p.379
Polish,AnEssentialGrammarbyDanaBielec(Routledge,2007),p.272
Hook,P.E.,andO.N.Koul.(1996).InV.S.LakshmiandA.Mukherjee,eds."WordorderinIndianlanguages".OsmaniaUniversity:CentreofAdvancedStudyinLinguistics.p.102.ISBN8185194424.

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