subject–object–verb - wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linguistic typologyMorphological

Isolating

Synthetic

Polysynthetic

Fusional

Agglutinative

MorphosyntacticAlignment

Accusative

Ergative

Split ergative

Philippine

Active–stative

Tripartite

Marked nominative

Inverse marking

Syntactic pivot

Theta role

Word orderVO languages

Subject–verb–object

Verb–subject–object

Verb–object–subject

OV languages

Subject–object–verb

Subject–object–verbFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Subject–object–verb - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject–object–verb

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Object–subject–verb

Object–verb–subject

Time–manner–place

Place–manner–time

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In linguistic typology, a subject–object–verb (SOV) language is one in which thesubject, object, and verb of a sentence appear or usually appear in that order. IfEnglish were SOV, then "Sam oranges ate" would be an ordinary sentence, as opposedto the actual Standard English "Sam ate oranges". The label is often used for ergativelanguages such as Adyghe and Basque that do not have subjects but have an agent–object–verb order.

Contents1 Incidence2 Properties3 Examples

3.1 Albanian3.2 Arabic3.3 Azerbaijani3.4 Basque3.5 Burmese3.6 Chinese3.7 Dutch3.8 French3.9 German3.10 Hungarian3.11 Kazakh3.12 Italian3.13 Japanese3.14 Korean3.15 Latin3.16 Pashto3.17 Pashto


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Wordorder

Englishequivalent

Proportionof languages

Examplelanguages

SOV "She him loves." 45% Japanese, Latin, Tamil

SVO "She loves him." 42% English, Mandarin, Russian

VSO "Loves she him." 9% Hebrew, Irish, Zapotec

VOS "Loves him she." 3% Malagasy, Baure

OVS "Him loves she." 1% Apalai?, Hixkaryana?

OSV "Him she loves." 0% Warao

Frequency distribution of word order in languagessurveyed by Russell S. Tomlin in 1980s.[1][2]

3.18 Persian3.19 Russian3.20 Tamil3.21 Turkish3.22 Udmurt

4 See also5 References

IncidenceAmong naturallanguages with aword orderpreference, SOV isthe most commontype (followed bysubject–verb–object;the two types accountfor more than 75% ofnatural languageswith a preferredorder).[3] Languagesthat have SOVstructure includeAinu, Akkadian,Amharic, Armenian,Assamese, Aymara, Azerbaijani, Basque, Bengali, Burmese, Burushaski, Dogonlanguages, Elamite, Ancient Greek, Hindi, Hittite, Hopi, Hungarian, Ijoid languages,Itelmen, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Kurdish, Classical Latin, Manchu, Mandelanguages, Marathi, Mongolian, Navajo, Nepali, Newari, Nivkh, Nobiin, Pāli, Pashto,Persian, Punjabi, Quechua, Sanskrit, Senufo languages, Seri, Sicilian, Sindhi,Sinhalese and most other Indo-Iranian languages, Somali and virtually all otherCushitic languages, Sumerian, Tagalog, Tibetan and nearly all other Tibeto-Burmanlanguages, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and all other Dravidian languages,Tigrinya, Turkic languages, Turkish, Urdu, Yukaghir, and virtually all Caucasianlanguages.


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Standard Mandarin is SVO, but for simple sentences with a clear context, word orderis flexible enough to allow for SOV or OSV. German and Dutch are considered SVOin conventional typology and SOV in generative grammar. For example, in German, abasic sentence such as "Ich sage etwas über Karl" ("I say something about Karl") is inSVO word order. When a noun clause marker like "dass" or "wer" (in English, "that"or "who" respectively) is used, the verb appears at the end of the sentence for the wordorder SOV. A possible example in SOV word order would be "Ich sage, dass Karleinen Gürtel gekauft hat." (A literal English translation would be "I say that Karl abelt bought has.")This is V2 word order.

Aharon Dolgopolsky supposes the Proto-Nostratic to be SOV.

PropertiesSOV languages have a strong tendency to use postpositions rather than prepositions,to place auxiliary verbs after the action verb, to place genitive noun phrases before thepossessed noun, to place a name before a title or honorific ("James Uncle" and"Johnson Doctor" rather than "Uncle James" and "Doctor Johnson"), and to havesubordinators appear at the end of subordinate clauses. They have a weaker butsignificant tendency to place demonstrative adjectives before the nouns they modify.Relative clauses preceding the nouns to which they refer usually signals SOV wordorder, but the reverse does not hold: SOV languages feature prenominal andpostnominal relative clauses roughly equally. SOV languages also seem to exhibit atendency towards using a time–manner–place ordering of adpositional phrases.

In linguistic typology one can usefully distinguish two types of SOV language interms of their type of marking:

dependent-marking has case markers to distinguish the subject and the object,which allows it to use the variant OSV word order without ambiguity. This typeusually places adjectives and numerals before the nouns they modify and isexclusively suffixing without prefixes. SOV languages of this first type includeJapanese and Tamil.

1.

head-marking distinguishes subject and object by affixes on the verb rather thanmarkers on the nouns. It also differs from the dependent-marking SOV languagein using prefixes as well as suffixes, usually for tense and possession. Becauseadjectives in this type are much more verb-like than in dependent-marking SOVlanguages, they usually follow the nouns. In most SOV languages with asignificant level of head-marking or verb-like adjectives, numerals and related

2.


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quantifiers (like "all", "every") also follow the nouns they modify. Languages ofthis type include Navajo and Seri.

In practice, of course, the distinction between these two types is far from sharp. ManySOV languages are substantially double-marking and tend to exhibit propertiesintermediate between the two idealised types above.

ExamplesAlbanian

Sentence Agimi librin e mori.Words Agimi librin e moriGloss Agimi the book tookParts Subject Object VerbTranslation Agimi took the book. (It was Agimi who took the book)

Arabic

Sentence . يیعبدوونن إإيیانا كانواا ماWords كانواا ما إإيیانا يیعبدوونن

Glossكانواا ما (are

not+nominative "u"ending)

us+accusative) إإيیانا"a" ending)

.they worship+3) يیعبدووننmasculine plural "un"ending)

Transliteration mā kānū ʾiyyānā yaʿbudūnaParts Subject Object VerbTranslation They do not worship us.

Azerbaijani

Sentence Yusuf almanı yedi .Words Yusuf almanı yediGloss Joseph the apple ateParts Subject Object VerbTranslation Joseph ate the apple.


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Basque

Basque does not have subjects, but has an agent–object–verb order in transitiveclauses:

Sentence Enekok sagarra ekarri du.Words Enekok sagarra ekarri duGloss Eneko (+ERGative) the apple brought (to bring) AUX hasParts Subject Object VerbTranslation Eneko has brought the apple

Burmese

Burmese is an analytic language.

Sentence Words

IPA ŋànga

ɡaga.

seʔkù búse'ku bu:

ɡògou

pʰwìɴhpwin.

dède

Gloss I (subj) box (obj) open (pres)Parts Subject Object Verb

Translation I open the box.

Chinese

Generally, Chinese languages are all SVO languages. However, especially inMandarin, SOV is tolerated as well. There is even a special structure to form a SOVsentence.

Sentence 我把苹果吃了.Words 我把苹果吃了.Transliteration Wǒ bǎ píngguǒ chīleGloss I sign for moving object before the verb apple ateParts Subject Sign Object VerbTranslation I ate the apple.


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Dutch

Dutch is partly SOV. For simple verbs, it is SVO, but for compound verbs, theinflected root is moved to the end of the sentence. That is called the V2 word order.

Sentence Wij hebben je geholpen.Parts Wij hebben je geholpenGloss We have you helpedParts Subject + aux Object inflected VerbTranslation We helped you

French

The French language usually uses a subject–verb–object structure, but when usingmost pronouns, it places enclitics before the verb. That is sometimes mistaken forSOV word order.

Sentence Nous les avons.Parts Nous les-avons.Gloss We them/those-haveParts Subject Object-VerbTranslation We have those/them

German

German is partially SOV. For simple verbs, it is SVO, but for compound verbs, theinflected root is moved to the end of the sentence. That is called the V2 word order.

SentenceWords Horst hat einen Apfel gegessenGloss Horst has an apple eatenParts Subject + aux Object inflected VerbTranslation Horst ate an apple.

The word order changes also depending on whether the phrase is a main clause or adependent clause. In dependent clauses, the word order is always entirely SOV (cf.also Inversion):


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SentenceWords Weil Horst einen Apfel gegessen hatGloss Because Horst an apple eaten hasParts Subject Object inflected Verb + auxTranslation Because Horst ate an apple.

Hungarian

Sentence Pista kenyeret szel.Words Pista kenyeret szelGloss Pista bread slicesParts Subject Object VerbTranslation Pista slices bread.

Kazakh

Sentence Дастан кітап оқыды.Words Дастан кітап оқыдыTransliteration Dastan kitap oqıdıGloss Dastan the book readParts Subject Object VerbTranslation Dastan read the book.

Italian

The Italian language usually uses a subject–verb–object structure.

Sentence Io sto mangiando una melaParts I amGloss I amParts Subject Object-VerbTranslation I am eating an apple

Japanese


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Sentence 私が箱を開けます。Words 私が箱を開けます。

Romanization watashi ga hako o akemasu.Gloss I (sub) box (obj) open(polite)Parts Subject Object Verb

Translation I (am the one who) open(s) the box.

The markers が (ga) and を (o) are, respectively, subject and object markers for thewords that precede them. Technically, the sentence couldbe translated a number ofways ("I open a box", "It is I who open the boxes", etc.), but this does not affect theSOV analysis.

Japanese has some flexibility in word order, so an OSV is also possible. (箱を私が開けます。)

Korean

Sentence 내내가 상상자자를 연연다.Words 내내 가 상상자자 를 연연 다.

Romanization nae ga sangja reul yeon da.Gloss I (nominative) box (accusative) open (indicative)Parts Subject Object Verb

Translation I open the box.

'가 (ga)/이 (i)' is a particle that indicates the nominative case. '를 (reul)/을 (eul)' is aparticle that indicates the accusative case. '다 (da)' indicates the declarative.

※ Here, '나 (na, I (pronoun))' is changed to '내 (nae)' before '가 (ga)'.

Latin

Classical Latin was an inflected language and had a very flexible word order andsentence structure, but the most usual word order was SOV.


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Sentence Servus puellam amatWords Servus puellam amatGloss Slave (nom) girl (acc) lovesParts Subject Object Verb

Translation The slave loves the girl.

Again, there are multiple valid translations (such as "a slave") that do not affect theoverall analysis.

Pashto

Sentence . کومم کارر ززههWords ززهه کارر کوممGloss (Subject Pronoun) ززهه (Noun) کارر (verb) کوممTransliteration ze kaar kawumParts Subject Object VerbTranslation I do the work.

Pashto

Sentence

ووړووخو ککګمن پشو and ووړووخو پشو ککګمن

what about this? which one is the subject in ووړووخو پشو ککګمن ,grammatically it is correct but semantically wrong|-

Persian

Sentence . میخوررمم سيیب منWords من سيیب میخوررممGloss I apple eat (first person present tense)Transliteration man seeb mikhoramParts Subject Object VerbTranslation I am eating an apple.

Russian


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Russian is an inflected language and very flexible in word order; it allowsall possible word combinations.

Sentence Она его любитWords Она его любитGloss Она (nom) его (acc) любитParts Subject Object Verb

Translation She loves him

Tamil

Sentence நநாா## தா# ெெபப''((ைய +ற-ேப#.

Words நநாா## தா# ெெபப''(( ைய ++றற-ேப#。Romanization Nān tān peṭṭi yai tiṟappēn.

Gloss I (nominative) box (accusative) open(indicativeverb)

Parts Subject Object VerbTranslation I (am the one who) open(s) the box.

The தா# (tān) and ைய (yai) are, respectively, nominative and accusativemarkers for the subject and object that respectively precede them. The தா#(tān) is optional in the Tamil language. The sentence may literally betranslated as 'I [who am] the box [which] open shall.'

The sentence may also be translated, although less frequently, as ெப'(ையநா# தா# +ற-ேப# (Peṭṭiyai nāṉ tāṉ tiṟappēn), or simply, ெப'(ைய+ற-ேப# (Peṭṭiyai tiṟappēn) as Tamil is a null-subject language becausethe indicative verb at the end of the word indicates the 1st person subject.This follows the object-subject-verb (OSV) pattern.

Turkish

Sentence Yusuf elmayı yedi.


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Words Yusuf elmayı yediGloss Joseph the apple ateParts Subject Object VerbTranslation Joseph ate the apple.

Udmurt

Sentence мoн книгa лыӟӥcькo.Words мoн книгa лыӟӥcькo.Gloss I a book to readParts Subject Object VerbTranslation I am reading a book.

See alsoTopic-prominent languageSubject–verb–objectObject–subject–verbObject–verb–subjectVerb–object–subjectVerb–subject–objectCategory:Subject–object–verb languages

References^ Introducing English Linguistics International Student Edition by Charles F.Meyer (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MWbrvUiYzSkC&pg=PA36)

1.

^ Russell Tomlin, "Basic Word Order: Functional Principles", Croom Helm,London, 1986, page 22

2.

^ Crystal, David (1997). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (2ndedition ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55967-7.

3.

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subject–object–verb - wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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