Subject–object–verb
In linguistic typology, a subject–object–verb (SOV) language is one in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence always or usually appear in that order. If English were SOV, "Sam oranges ate" would be an ordinary sentence, as opposed to the actual Standard English "Sam ate oranges" which is Subject–verb–object (SVO).
Linguistic typology |
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Morphological |
Morphosyntactic |
Word order |
Lexicon |
The term is often loosely used for ergative languages like Adyghe and Basque that really have agents instead of subjects.
Incidence
Among natural languages with a word order preference, SOV is the most common type (followed by subject–verb–object; the two types account for more than 75% of natural languages with a preferred order).[3]
Languages that have SOV structure include Ainu, Akkadian, Amharic, Armenian, Assamese, Assyrian, Aymara, Azerbaijani, Basque, Bengali, Burmese, Burushaski, Cherokee, Dakota, Dogon languages, Elamite, Ancient Greek, Gujarati, Hajong, Hindi, Marathi, Hittite, Hopi, Ijoid languages, Itelmen, Japanese, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Korean, Kurdish, Classical Latin, Lakota, Manchu, Mande languages, Marathi,Meeteilon,Mongolian, Navajo, Nepali, Newari, Nivkh, Nobiin, Omaha, Pāli, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi, Quechua, Senufo languages, Seri, Sicilian, Sindhi, Sinhalese, Sunuwar and most other Indo-Iranian languages, Somali and virtually all other Cushitic languages, Sumerian, Tibetan and nearly all other Tibeto-Burman languages, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and all other Dravidian languages, Tigrinya, Turkish and other Turkic languages, Urdu, almost all Uto-Aztecan languages, Uzbek, Yukaghir, and virtually all Caucasian languages.
Standard Mandarin is SVO just like English, but for simple sentences with a clear context, word order is flexible enough to allow for SOV or OSV. Some Romance languages are SVO, but when the object is an enclitic pronoun, word order allows for SOV (see the examples below). German and Dutch are considered SVO in conventional typology and SOV in generative grammar. They can be considered SOV but with V2 word order as an overriding rule for the finite verb in main clauses, which results in SVO in some cases and SOV in others. For example, in German, a basic sentence such as "Ich sage etwas über Karl" ("I say something about Karl") is in SVO word order. Non-finite verbs are placed at the end, however, since V2 only applies to the finite verb: "Ich will etwas über Karl sagen" ("I want to say something about Karl"). In a subordinate clause, the finite verb is not affected by V2, and also appears at the end of the sentence, resulting in full SOV order: "Ich sage, dass Karl einen Gürtel gekauft hat." (Word-for-word: "I say that Karl a belt bought has.")
A rare example of SOV word order in English is "I (subject) thee (object) wed (verb)" in the wedding vow "With this ring, I thee wed."[4]
Properties
SOV 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 the possessed noun, to place a name before a title or honorific ("James Uncle" and "Johnson Doctor" rather than "Uncle James" and "Doctor Johnson") and to have subordinators appear at the end of subordinate clauses. They have a weaker but significant tendency to place demonstrative adjectives before the nouns they modify. Relative clauses preceding the nouns to which they refer usually signals SOV word order, but the reverse does not hold: SOV languages feature prenominal and postnominal relative clauses roughly equally. SOV languages also seem to exhibit a tendency towards using a time–manner–place ordering of adpositional phrases.
In linguistic typology, one can usefully distinguish two types of SOV languages in terms 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 type usually places adjectives and numerals before the nouns they modify, and is exclusively suffixing without prefixes. SOV languages of this first type include Japanese and Tamil.
- head-marking distinguishes subject and object by affixes on the verb rather than markers on the nouns. It also differs from the dependent-marking SOV language in using prefixes as well as suffixes, usually for tense and possession. Adjectives in this type are much more verb-like than in dependent-marking SOV languages, and hence they usually follow the nouns. In most SOV languages with a significant level of head-marking or verb-like adjectives, numerals and related quantifiers (like "all", "every") also follow the nouns they modify. Languages of this type include Navajo and Seri.
In practice, of course, the distinction between these two types is far from sharp. Many SOV languages are substantially double-marking and tend to exhibit properties intermediate between the two idealised types above.
Many languages that have shifted to SVO word order from earlier SOV retain (at least to an extent) the properties: for example, the Finnish language (high usage of postpositions etc.)
Examples
Albanian
Sentence | Agimi librin e mori. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Agimi | librin | e mori | ||
Gloss | Agimi | the book | took | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | Agimi took the book. (It was Agimi who took the book) |
- This sequence (SOV) occurs only in the poetic language.
Azerbaijani
Sentence | Ümid ağac əkəcək. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Ümid | ağac | əkəcək | ||
Gloss | Umid | tree | will plant | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | Umid will plant a tree. |
Armenian
Sentence | Իմ անունը Շուշանիկ է։ | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Իմ | անունը | Շուշանիկ | է | |
Romanization | Im | anunȳ | Šušanik | ē | |
Gloss | My | name | Shushanik | is | |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | My name is Shushanik. |
Basque
Basque in short sentences, usually, subject or agent–object–verb; in long sentences, usually, subject or agent-verb-objects):
Sentence | Enekok sagarra ekarri du. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Enekok | sagarra | ekarri | du | |
Gloss | Eneko (+ERGative) | the apple | brought (to bring) | AUX has | |
Parts | Agent | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | Eneko has brought the apple |
Sentence | Eneritzek eskatu du inork irakurri nahi ez zuen liburua | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Eneritzek | eskatu | du | + + + | |
Gloss | Eneritz (+ERGative) | asked for | AUX has | + + + | |
Parts | Agent | Verb | Objects | ||
Translation | Eneritz requested the book nobody wanted to read |
Bengali
Sentence | আমি ভাত খাই | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | আমি | ভাত | খাই | |||
IPA | ami ami |
bʰat bhat |
kʰai khai | |||
Gloss | I | (subj) | rice | (obj) | eat | (pres) |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | |||
Translation | I eat rice. |
Burmese
Burmese is an analytic language.
Sentence | ငါက ေရသန့်ဘူးကို ဖွင့်တယ်။ | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | ငါ | က | ေရသန့်ဘူး | ကို | ဖွင့် | တယ် |
IPA | ŋà nga | ɡa̰ ga. | seʔkù bú se'ku bu: | ɡò gou | pʰwìɴ hpwin. | dè de |
Gloss | I | (subj) | water bottle | (obj) | open | (pres) |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | |||
Translation | I open the water bottle. |
Chinese
Generally, Chinese varieties all feature SVO word order. However, especially in Standard Mandarin, SOV is tolerated as well. There is even a special structure to form an SOV sentence.
SOV structure is also widely used in railway contact in order to clarify the objective of the order.[5]
The following example that uses 把 is controversially labelled as SOV. 把 may be interpreted as a verb, meaning "to hold". However, it does not mean to hold something literally or physically. Rather, the object is held mentally, and then another verb is acted on the object.
Sentence | 我把苹果吃了. | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Words | 我 | 把 | 苹果 | 吃了. |
Transliteration | Wǒ | bǎ | píngguǒ | chīle |
Gloss | I | sign for moving object before the verb | apple | ate |
Parts | Subject | Sign | Object | Verb |
Translation | I ate the apple. (The apple we were talking about earlier) | |||
Dutch
Dutch is SOV combined with V2 word order. The non-finite verb (infinitive or participle) remains in final position, but the finite (i.e. inflected) verb is moved to the second position. Simple verbs look like SVO, non-finite verbs (participles, infinitives) and compound verbs follow this pattern:
Sentence | Ik wil je helpen. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Parts | Ik | wil | je | helpen | |
Gloss | I | want to | you | help | |
Parts | subject | fin.verb | object | nonfin.verb | |
Translation | I want to help you. |
Pure SOV order is found in subordinate clauses:
Sentence | Ik zei dat ik je wil helpen. | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Parts | Ik | zei | dat | ik | je | wil | helpen |
Gloss | I | said | that | I | you | want | to help |
Parts | subject | fin.verb | subord. conj. | subject | object | fin.verb | nonfin.verb |
Translation | I said that I want to help you. |
French
The French language usually uses a subject–verb–object structure but places proclitics before the verb when using most pronouns, which is sometimes mistaken for SOV word order.
Sentence | Nous les avons. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Parts | Nous | les-avons. | |||
Gloss | We | them/those-have | |||
Parts | Subject | Object-Verb | |||
Translation | We have those/them |
Georgian
The Georgian language isn't extremely rigid with regards to word order, but is typically either SOV or SVO.
Sentence | მე ქართველი ვარ. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Transliteration | me kartveli var | ||||
Parts | მე | ქართველი | ვარ. | ||
Gloss | I | Georgian | [I] am | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | I am (a) Georgian. |
German
German is SOV combined with V2 word order. The non-finite verb (infinitive or participle) remains in final position, but the finite (i.e. inflected) verb is moved to the second position. Simple verbs look like SVO, compound verbs follow this pattern:
Sentence | Er hat einen Apfel gegessen. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Er | hat | einen Apfel | gegessen. | |
Gloss | He | has | an apple | eaten. | |
Parts | Subject | Auxiliary | Object | Verb | |
Translation | He has eaten an apple. |
The word order changes also depending on whether the phrase is a main clause or a dependent clause. In dependent clauses, the word order is always entirely SOV (cf. also Inversion):
Subordinate Clause | Weil Horst einen Apfel gegessen hat. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Weil | Horst | einen Apfel | gegessen | hat. |
Gloss | Because | Horst | an apple | eaten | has. |
Parts | Conjunction | Subject | Object | Verb | Auxiliary |
Translation | Because Horst has eaten an apple. |
Gothic
Sentence | Guma qinon frijoþ. | ||
---|---|---|---|
Words | Guma | qinon | frijoþ. |
Gloss | The man | the woman | loves. |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb |
Translation | The man loves the woman. |
Greek (Classical)
Sentence | ὁ ἀνὴρ τòν παĩδα φιλεῖ. | ||
---|---|---|---|
Words | ὁ ανήρ (ho anḗr) | τòν παĩδα (tòn paîda) | φιλεῖ (phileî). |
Gloss | The man | the child | loves. |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb |
Translation | The man loves the child. |
Hajong
Sentence | Moi hugre'mre' khasei. | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Moi | hugre'm | re' | kha | sei. | |
Gloss | I | guava | (accusative) | eat | (past tense, indicative) | |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | |||
Translation | I ate the guava. |
're is a particle that indicates the accusative case and 'sei' indicates past tense declarative. Here, 'e is pronounced as the 'i' in 'girl' and 'ei' is pronounced as the 'ay' in 'say'.
Hindi
Sentence | मैं एक सेब खाता हूँ। | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Words | मैं | एक | सेब | खाता हूँ |
Romanization | main | ek | seb | khaataa hun |
Gloss | I | an | apple | eat (simple present. m.) |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | |
Translation | I eat an apple. |
Hungarian
Hungarian word order is free, although the meaning slightly changes. Almost all permutations of the following sample are valid, but with stress on different parts of the meaning.
Sentence | Pista kenyeret szeletel. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Pista | kenyeret | szeletel | ||
Gloss | Pista | bread | slices | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | Pista slices bread. |
Italian
The Italian language usually uses a subject–verb–object structure, but when an enclitic pronoun is used, this comes before the verb and the auxiliary.
Sentence | Io la sto mangiando | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Parts | Io | la | sto | mangiando | |
Gloss | I | it | am | eating | |
Parts | Subject | Object | Auxiliary | Verb | |
Translation | I am eating it |
Japanese
Sentence | 私が箱を開けます。 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | 私 | が | 箱 | を | 開けます。 | |
Romanization | watashi | ga | hako | (w)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 ((w)o) are, respectively, subject and object markers for the words that precede them. Technically, the sentence could be translated a number of ways ("I open a box", "It is I who open the boxes", etc.), but this does not affect the SOV analysis.
Japanese has some flexibility in word order, so an OSV is also possible. (箱を私が開けます。)
Kannada
Sentence | ನಾನು ಮನೆ ಕಟ್ಟಿದೆನು . | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | ನಾನು | ಮನೆ | ಕಟ್ಟಿದೆನು | ||
Transliteration | Naanu | mane | kaTTidenu | ||
Gloss | I | the house | built | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | I built the house. |
Kashmiri
Like German and Dutch, the Indo-Aryan language Kashmiri is SOV combined with V2 word order. The non-finite verb (infinitive or participle) remains in final position, but the finite (i.e. inflected) part of the verb appears in second position. Simple verbs look like SVO, whereas auxiliated verbs are discontinuous and adhere to this pattern:
Sentence | کور چہے ثونٹہ کہیوان | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Transcription | kuur | chhi | tsũũţh | khyevaan | ||
Gloss | girl | is | apples | eating | ||
Parts | Subject | Auxiliary | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | The girl is eating apples. |
Given that Kashmiri is a V2 language, if the word tsũũţh 'apple' comes first then the subject kuur 'girl' must follow the auxiliary chhi 'is': tsũũţh chhi kuur khyevaan [Lit. "Apples is girl eating."]
Also, the word order changes depending on whether the phrase is in a main clause or in certain kinds of dependent clause. For instance, in relative clauses, the word order is SOVAux:
Main clause + Subordinate Clause | میے ان سوہ کور یوس ثونٹہ کہیوان چہے | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Transcription | => | mye | eny | swa kuur | => | ywas | tsũũţh | khyevaan | chhi |
Gloss | => | I | brought | that girl | => | who | apples | eating | is |
Parts | Main clause => | Subject | Verb | Object | Relative clause => | Subject | Object | Verb | Auxiliary |
Translation | I brought the girl who is eating apples. |
Kazakh
Sentence | Дастан кітап оқыды. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Дастан | кітап | оқыды | ||
Transliteration | Dastan | kitap | oqıdı | ||
Gloss | Dastan | a book | read | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | Dastan read a book. |
Like in Japanese, OSV is possible too. (Кітапті Дастан оқыды.)
Korean
Sentence | 내가 상자를 연다. | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | 내 | 가 | 상자 | 를 | 여(ㄹ) | ㄴ | 다. |
Romanization | nae | ga | sangja | reul | yeo(l) | n | da. |
Gloss | I | (subject) | box | (object) | open | (present) | (indicative) |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||||
Translation | I open the box. |
'가 (Ga)/이 (i)' is a particle that indicates the subject. '를 (Reul)/을 (eul)' is a particle that indicates the object. The consonant 'ㄹ (l)' in the verb stem (열-) is dropped before the suffix.
※ Here, '나 (na, I (pronoun))' is changed to '내 (nae)' before '가 (ga)'.
Kurdish (Kurmanci)
Sentence | Ez xwarin dixwim. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Ez | xwarin | dixwim | ||
Gloss | I | food | eat | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | I eat food. |
Kurdish (Sorani)
Sentence | .من خواردن دەخۆم | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | من | خواردن | دەخۆم | ||
Gloss | I | food | eat | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | I eat food. |
Kyrgyz
Sentence | Биз алма жедик | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Биз | алма | жедик | ||
Transliteration | Biz | alma | jedik | ||
Gloss | We | an apple | ate | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | We ate an apple |
Latin
Classical Latin was an inflected language and had a very flexible word order and sentence structure, but the most usual word order in formal prose was SOV.
Sentence | Servus puellam amat | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Servus | puellam | amat | |||
Gloss | Slave (nom) | girl (acc) | loves | |||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | |||
Translation | The slave loves the girl. |
Again, there are multiple valid translations (such as "a slave") that do not affect the overall analysis.
Malayalam
Sentence | ഞാൻ പുസ്തകത്തെ എടുത്തു. | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Words | ഞാൻ | പുസ്തകം | എ | എടുത്തു |
Transliteration | ñān | pustakam̥ | (-e) (accusative)* | eṭuttu |
Gloss | I | (the) book | took | |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | |
Translation | I took the book. |
- Pustakam̥ + -e = pustakatte (പുസ്തകത്തെ)
Manchu
Sentence | ᠪᡳ ᠪᡠᡩᠠ ᠪᡝ ᠵᡝᠮᠪᡳ | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Words | ᠪᡳ | ᠪᡠᡩᠠ | ᠪᡝ | ᠵᡝᠮᠪᡳ |
Transliteration | bi | buda | be | jembi |
Gloss | I | meal | (accusative) | eat |
Parts | Subject | Object | Grammatical marker | Verb |
Translation | I eat a meal. |
Marathi
Sentence | तो बियाणे पेरतो. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | तो | बियाणे | पेरतो | ||
Transliteration | Tō | biyāṇē | pēratō | ||
Gloss | he | seeds | sows | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | He sows seeds. |
Meitei
Sentence | ꯑꯩ ꯐꯨꯠꯕꯣꯜ ꯁꯥꯅꯩ꯫ | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | ꯑꯩ | ꯐꯨꯠꯕꯣꯜ | ꯁꯥꯅꯩ | ||
Transliteration | Ei | football | sanei | ||
Gloss | I | football | play | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | I play football. |
Mongolian
Sentence | Би ном уншив. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Би | ном | уншив | ||
Transliteration | Bi | nom | unshiv | ||
Gloss | I | a book | read | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | I read a book. |
Nepali
Sentence | म विद्यालय जान्छु । | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | म | विद्यालय | जान्छु | ||
Transliteration | Ma | vidyalaya | jānchhu | ||
Gloss | I | school | go (simple present) | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | I go to school. |
Ossetian
Sentence | Алан чиныг кæсы. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Алан | чиныг | кæсы | ||
Transliteration | Alan | činyg | kæsy | ||
Gloss | Alan | book | reads | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | Alan reads a book. |
Pashto
Sentence | .زۀ کار کوم | ||
---|---|---|---|
Words | زۀ | کار | کوم |
Gloss | زۀ (Subject Pronoun) | کار (Noun) | کوم (verb) |
Transliteration | Zə | kaar | kawəm |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb |
Translation | I do the work. |
Persian
Sentence | .من سیب میخورم | ||
---|---|---|---|
Words | من | سیب | میخورم |
Gloss | I | apple | eat (first person present tense) |
Transliteration | man | seeb | mikhoram |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb |
Translation | I am eating an apple. |
Portuguese
Portuguese is an SVO language, but it has some SOV constructs.
In case of proclisis:
Sentence | Todos aqui te amam. | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Word | Todos | aqui | te | amam |
Gloss | Everybody | here | you (proclitic) | love |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | |
Translation | Everybody here loves you. |
Sentence | Aquilo me entristeceu. | ||
---|---|---|---|
Word | Aquilo | me | entristeceu |
Gloss | It/that | me (proclitic) | saddened |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb |
Translation | It saddened me. |
When using a temporal adverb, optionally with the negative:
Sentence | Nós já [não] os temos. | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Word | Nós | já [não] | os | temos |
Gloss | We | already [not] | them (masc.) | have |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | |
Translation | (Positive) We already have them. (Negative) We do not have them anymore. |
Sentence | Nós ainda [não] os temos. | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Word | Nós | ainda [não] | os | temos |
Gloss | We | still [not] | them (masc.) | have |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | |
Translation | (Positive) We still have them. (Negative) We have do not them yet. |
There is an infix construction for the future and conditional tenses:
Sentence | Eu fá-lo-ei amanhã. | ||
---|---|---|---|
Word | Eu | fá-lo-ei | amanhã |
Gloss | I | do-it-will | tomorrow |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb |
Translation | I will do it tomorrow. |
SVO form: Eu hei-de fazê-lo amanhã or eu farei o mesmo amanhã
Punjabi
Punjabi is very flexible in word order and is written in two writing systems, Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi - which is written from right-to-left.
Sentence | Gurmukhi | ਮੈਨੂੰ ਇੱਕ ਸੇਬ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ। | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shahmukhi | مَیں نُوں اِکّ سیب چاہیدا ہے۔ | ||||
Words | Gurmukhi | ਮੈਨੂੰ | ਇੱਕ | ਸੇਬ | ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ |
Shahmukhi | مَیں نُوں | اِکّ | سیب | چاہیدا ہے | |
Romanization | mainu | ikk | seb | chaahida hai | |
Gloss | I (dative) | an | apple | want | |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | I want an apple. |
Quechua
Quechuan languages have standard SOV word order. The following example is from Bolivian Quechua.
Sentence | Ñuqaqa papata mikhurqani. | ||
---|---|---|---|
Words | Ñuqa-qa | papa-ta | mikhu-rqa-ni |
Gloss | I-TOPIC | potato-ACCUSATIVE | eat-PAST-1SG |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb |
Translation | I ate potatoes. |
Russian
Russian is an inflected language and very flexible in word order; it allows all possible word combinations. However, it is generally considered a SOV language.
Sentence | Она его любит | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Она | его | любит | |||
Transliteration | aná | yevó | lyúbit | |||
Gloss | she (nom) | him (acc) | loves | |||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | |||
Translation | She loves him |
for example: Она любит его, любит его oна, любит oна его, and virtually all re-orderings of Russian sentence order are correct although this is often used in different situations to emphasize particular constituents of a sentence, such as: Who loves him? 'she' is the one who loves him (emphatic meaning). In this way any part of the sentence can be emphasized without changing basic meaning (a convenience created by Russian's noun case system)
Sanskrit
Sanskrit, like its predecessor, Vedic, is an inflected language and very flexible in word order; it allows all possible word combinations. However, it is generally considered a SOV language.
Sentence | तत्त्वमसि | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | तत्त् | (त्)वम | सि | ||
Transliteration | tát | t(ú)vam | ási | ||
Gloss | that | you | are | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | That you are. |
Somali
Somali generally uses the subject–object–verb structure when speaking formally.
Sentence | Aniga baa albaabka furay | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Aniga | baa | albaab(ka) | furay |
Gloss | I | Focus | (the) door | opened |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | |
Translation | I opened the door |
Spanish
The Spanish language usually uses a subject–verb–object structure, but when an enclitic pronoun is used, this comes before the verb and the auxiliary. Sometimes, in dual-verb constructions involving the infinitive and the gerund, the enclitic pronoun can be put before both verbs, or attached to the end of the second verb.
Sentence | Yo lo como | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Parts | Yo | lo | como | ||
Gloss | I | it | eat | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | I eat it |
Talysh
Sentence | Merd kitob handedə. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Merd | kitob | handedə | ||
Gloss | Man | book | reading | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | The man is reading a book. |
Tamil
Tamil being a strongly head-final language, the basic word-order is SOV. However, since it is highly inflected, word order is flexible and is used for pragmatic purposes. That is, fronting a word in a sentence adds emphasis on it; for instance, a VSO order would indicate greater emphasis on the verb, the action, than on the subject or the object. However, such word-orders are highly marked, and the basic order remains SOV.
Sentence | நான் பெட்டியை திறப்பேன். | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | நான் | பெட்டியை | திறப்பேன். | |||
Romanization | Nān | peṭṭi-yai | tiṟa-pp-ēn. | |||
Gloss | I-Nom. | box-Acc. | open-Fut.-1P.Sing. | |||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | |||
Translation | I will open the box. |
Telugu
Sentence | నేను పార్టీకి వెళ్తున్నాను. | ||
---|---|---|---|
Words | నేను | పార్టీకి | వెళ్తున్నాను. |
Transliteration | Nēnu | pārtīki | veḷtunnānu. |
Gloss | I | to party | am going. |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb |
Translation | I am going to the party. |
Tigrinya
The Tigrinya language usually uses a subject–verb–object structure.
Sentence | ዳኒኤል ኩዑሶ ቀሊዑ | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | ዳኒኤል | ኩዑሶ | ቀሊዑ | ||
Gloss | Daniel | ball | kicked | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | Daniel kicked the ball. |
Turkish
Sentence | Yusuf elmayı yedi. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Yusuf | elmayı | yedi | ||
Gloss | Joseph | the apple | ate | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | Joseph ate the apple. |
Like all other Turkic languages, Turkish has flexibility in word order, so any order is possible. For example, in addition to the SOV order above, this sentence could also be constructed as OSV (Elmayı Yusuf yedi.), OVS (Elmayı yedi Yusuf.), VSO (Yedi Yusuf elmayı.), VOS (Yedi elmayı Yusuf.), or SVO (Yusuf yedi elmayı.), but these other orders carry a connotation of emphasis of importance on either the subject, object, or the verb. The SOV order is the "default" one that does not connote particular emphasis on any part of the sentence.
Udmurt
Sentence | мoн книгa лыӟӥcькo. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | мoн | книгa | лыӟӥcькo. | ||
Romanization | mon | kniga | lyjis'ko | ||
Gloss | I | a book | to read | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | I am reading a book. |
Urdu
Sentence | .مَیں نے اُسے دیکھا | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Words | مَیں | نے | اُسے | دیکھا |
Romanization | main | ne | use | dekha |
Gloss | I (eragative) | him/her | saw | |
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | |
Translation | I saw him/her. |
Uzbek
Sentence | Anvar Xivaga ketdi. | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Anvar | Xivaga | ketdi. | |||
Gloss | Anvar (nom) | to Khiva (dat) | went | |||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | |||
Translation | Anvar went to Khiva. |
The marker "ga" is a dative case marker for the object that precedes it. Due to flexibility in word order in Uzbek, it is possible to transform the sentence into OSV as well ("Xivaga Anvar ketdi" / "It was Anvar who went to Khiva").
Yi
Sentence | ꉢꌧꅪꋠ. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | ꉢ | ꌧꅪ | ꋠ . | ||
Romaniz. | nga | syp-hni | zze. | ||
Gloss | I | (an) apple | (to) eat. | ||
Parts | Subject | Object | Verb | ||
Translation | I eat an apple. |
Zarma
Sentence | Hama na mo ŋwa . | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Words | Hama | na | mo | ŋwa | |
Gloss | Hama | (completed aspect) | rice | eat | |
Parts | Subject | Grammatical marker | Object | Verb | |
Translation | Hama ate rice. |
See also
- Topic-prominent language
- Subject–verb–object
- Object–subject–verb
- Object–verb–subject
- Verb–object–subject
- Verb–subject–object
- Category:Subject–object–verb languages
References
- Meyer, Charles F. (2010). Introducing English Linguistics International (Student ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Tomlin, Russell S. (1986). Basic Word Order: Functional Principles. London: Croom Helm. p. 22. ISBN 9780709924999. OCLC 13423631.
- Crystal, David (1997). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55967-7.
- Andreas Fischer, "'With this ring I thee wed': The verbs to wed and to marry in the history of English". Language History and Linguistic Modelling: A Festschrift for Jacek Fisiak on his 60th Birthday. Ed. Raymond Hickey and Stanislaw Puppel. Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs 101 (Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1997), pp.467-81
- 车机联控语言——铁路行车领域“共同语言”的研究 (Thesis) (in Chinese).