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Linguistic typology |
---|
Morphological |
Morphosyntactic |
Word order |
Lexicon |
In linguistic typology, object鈥搒ubject鈥搗erb (OSV) or object鈥揳gent鈥搗erb (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."
Order | Example | Usage | Languages | |
---|---|---|---|---|
SOV | "Cows grass eat." | 45% | Bengali, Burmese, Hindustani, Japanese, Korean, Oromo, Persian, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish | |
SVO | "Cows eat grass." | 42% | Arabic (modern spoken varieties), Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hausa, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Malay, Portuguese, Spanish, Standard Average European, Swahili, Thai, Vietnamese | |
VSO | "Eat cows grass." | 9% | Filipino, Ge式ez, Irish, M膩ori, Tuareg-Berber, Welsh | |
VOS | "Eat grass cows." | 3% | Car, Fijian, Malagasy, Q始eqchi始, Ter锚na | |
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] ( ) |
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 Amazon basin, such as Xavante, Jamamadi, Apurin茫, Warao, Kayab铆 and Nad毛b. [3] Here is an example from Apurin茫: [3]
anana
pineapple
nota
I
apa
fetch
I fetch a pineapple
British Sign Language (BSL) normally uses topic鈥揷omment structure, but its default word order when topic鈥揷omment structure is not used is OSV.
Various languages allow OSV word order but only in marked sentences, which emphasise part or all of the sentence.
Passive constructions in Chinese follow an OSV (OAV) pattern through the use of the particle 琚:
杩欎釜
Zh猫ge
this
姗樺瓙
j煤zi
orange
琚
b猫i
by
鎴
w菕
me
鍚
ch墨
eat
鎺
di脿o
浜
le
PFV
This orange was eaten by me.
This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's
quality standards. (September 2022) |
In English, object-subject-verb order is atypical but can be used for contrastive focus, as in: That car we bought at least five years ago. The other one we only bought last year. [4]
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
min盲
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
kyll盲
INT
suostuu
3SG.consent. PRS. IND
sy枚m盲盲n
eat. ILL
"He instead consents to eating chocolate."
In Modern Hebrew, OSV is often used instead of the normal SVO to emphasise the object. 讗谞讬 讗讜讛讘 讗讜转讛 would mean "I love her", but "讗讜转讛 讗谞讬 讗讜讛讘" would mean "It is she whom I love". [7] Possibly an influence of Germanic (via Yiddish), as Jewish English uses a similar construction ("You, I like, kid") much more than many other varieties of English and often with the "it is" left implicit.
In Hungarian, OSV emphasises the subject:
A sz贸cikket 茅n szerkesztettem = The article/I/edited (It was I, not somebody else, who edited the article).
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:
攴
geu
that
靷臣鈥撾姅
sagwa-neun
apple- TOP
Object
鞝溾撽皜
je-ga
I. POL- NOM
Subject
毹光撿棃鈥撿柎鈥撿殧
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:
銇濄伄
sono
that
銈娿倱銇斻偁銇
ringo-wa
apple- TOP
Object
绉併偁銇
watashi-ga
I. POL- NOM
Subject
As for the apple, I ate it. (or) The apple, I ate.
OSV is one of the permissible word orders in Malayalam, the other being SOV.
OSV is possible in Portuguese to emphasize the object.
De
of
ma莽茫
apple
Object
eu
I
Subject
n茫o
NEG
gosto
like- 1SG
Verb
I do not like apple
OSV is used in Turkish to emphasize the subject:
yeme臒-i
meal- ACC
ben
I
pi艧ir-di-m
cook- PST- 1SG
It was I, not somebody else, who cooked the meal.
This article has multiple issues. Please help
improve it or discuss these issues on the
talk page. (
Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Linguistic typology |
---|
Morphological |
Morphosyntactic |
Word order |
Lexicon |
In linguistic typology, object鈥搒ubject鈥搗erb (OSV) or object鈥揳gent鈥搗erb (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."
Order | Example | Usage | Languages | |
---|---|---|---|---|
SOV | "Cows grass eat." | 45% | Bengali, Burmese, Hindustani, Japanese, Korean, Oromo, Persian, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish | |
SVO | "Cows eat grass." | 42% | Arabic (modern spoken varieties), Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hausa, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Malay, Portuguese, Spanish, Standard Average European, Swahili, Thai, Vietnamese | |
VSO | "Eat cows grass." | 9% | Filipino, Ge式ez, Irish, M膩ori, Tuareg-Berber, Welsh | |
VOS | "Eat grass cows." | 3% | Car, Fijian, Malagasy, Q始eqchi始, Ter锚na | |
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] ( ) |
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 Amazon basin, such as Xavante, Jamamadi, Apurin茫, Warao, Kayab铆 and Nad毛b. [3] Here is an example from Apurin茫: [3]
anana
pineapple
nota
I
apa
fetch
I fetch a pineapple
British Sign Language (BSL) normally uses topic鈥揷omment structure, but its default word order when topic鈥揷omment structure is not used is OSV.
Various languages allow OSV word order but only in marked sentences, which emphasise part or all of the sentence.
Passive constructions in Chinese follow an OSV (OAV) pattern through the use of the particle 琚:
杩欎釜
Zh猫ge
this
姗樺瓙
j煤zi
orange
琚
b猫i
by
鎴
w菕
me
鍚
ch墨
eat
鎺
di脿o
浜
le
PFV
This orange was eaten by me.
This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's
quality standards. (September 2022) |
In English, object-subject-verb order is atypical but can be used for contrastive focus, as in: That car we bought at least five years ago. The other one we only bought last year. [4]
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
min盲
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
kyll盲
INT
suostuu
3SG.consent. PRS. IND
sy枚m盲盲n
eat. ILL
"He instead consents to eating chocolate."
In Modern Hebrew, OSV is often used instead of the normal SVO to emphasise the object. 讗谞讬 讗讜讛讘 讗讜转讛 would mean "I love her", but "讗讜转讛 讗谞讬 讗讜讛讘" would mean "It is she whom I love". [7] Possibly an influence of Germanic (via Yiddish), as Jewish English uses a similar construction ("You, I like, kid") much more than many other varieties of English and often with the "it is" left implicit.
In Hungarian, OSV emphasises the subject:
A sz贸cikket 茅n szerkesztettem = The article/I/edited (It was I, not somebody else, who edited the article).
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:
攴
geu
that
靷臣鈥撾姅
sagwa-neun
apple- TOP
Object
鞝溾撽皜
je-ga
I. POL- NOM
Subject
毹光撿棃鈥撿柎鈥撿殧
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:
銇濄伄
sono
that
銈娿倱銇斻偁銇
ringo-wa
apple- TOP
Object
绉併偁銇
watashi-ga
I. POL- NOM
Subject
As for the apple, I ate it. (or) The apple, I ate.
OSV is one of the permissible word orders in Malayalam, the other being SOV.
OSV is possible in Portuguese to emphasize the object.
De
of
ma莽茫
apple
Object
eu
I
Subject
n茫o
NEG
gosto
like- 1SG
Verb
I do not like apple
OSV is used in Turkish to emphasize the subject:
yeme臒-i
meal- ACC
ben
I
pi艧ir-di-m
cook- PST- 1SG
It was I, not somebody else, who cooked the meal.