Linguistic typology |
---|
Morphological |
Morphosyntactic |
Word order |
Lexicon |
Word order |
English equivalent |
Proportion of languages |
Example languages | |
---|---|---|---|---|
SOV | "Cows grass eat." | 45% | Ancient Greek, Bengali, Burmese, Hindi/ Urdu, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Oromo, Persian, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish, 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, 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] ( ) |
In linguistic typology, a verb鈥搒ubject鈥搊bject (VSO) language has its most typical sentences arrange their elements in that order, as in Ate Sam oranges (Sam ate oranges). VSO is the third-most common word order among the world's languages, [3] after SOV (as in Hindi and Japanese) and SVO (as in English and Mandarin Chinese).
Language families in which all or many of their members are VSO include the following:
Many languages, such as Greek, have relatively free word order, where VSO is one of many possible orders. Other languages, such as Spanish and Romanian, allow rather free subject-verb inversion. However, the most basic, common, and unmarked form in these languages is SVO, so they are classified as SVO languages.
Standard Arabic is an example of a language that uses VSO:
賷賻賯賿乇賻兀購
yaqra始u
reads
verb
俦賱賿賲購丿賻乇賽賾爻購
l-mudarrisu
the teacher
subject
俦賱賿賰賽鬲丕亘賻
l-kit膩ba
the book
object
The teacher reads the book
^* Arabic script is written right-to-left
Another Semitic language, Biblical Hebrew, uses VSO, as in Genesis 1:1, which is seen here, and many other places in the Tanakh:
讘指旨专指讗
Bara
created
verb
讗直诇止讛执讬诐
Elohim
God
subject
讛址砖指旨讈诪址讬执诐
ha-shamayim...
the heavens
object
God created the heavens...
^* et is a particle marking the direct object of the verb.
^* The Hebrew script is written from right to left.
In Welsh, some tenses use simple verbs, which are found at the beginning of the sentence and are followed by the subject and any objects. An example is the preterite:
Siaradodd
spoke
Verb
Aled
Aled
Subject
y Gymraeg
DEF Welsh
Object
Aled spoke Welsh.
Other tenses may use compound verbs in which the conjugated form of usually bod (to be) precedes the subject and other verb-nouns come after the subject. Objects then follow the final verb-noun. Here is the usual method of forming the present tense:
Mae
is
Aux. Verb
Aled
Aled
Subject
yn siarad
V- N.speak
Verb-Noun
y Gymraeg
DEF Welsh
Object
Aled speaks Welsh.
In Irish, phrases also use VSO:
Itheann
eats
Verb
Se谩n
Se谩n
Subject
ar谩n
bread
Object
Sean eats bread.
In Irish, in forming a question, the same order is used (with an interrogative particle in front):
An itheann
Do ...eat
Verb
t煤
you
Subject
ar谩n
bread
Object
Do you eat bread?
The typological classification of Breton syntax is problematic. It has been claimed that Breton has an underlying VSO character, but it appears at first sight that V2 is the most frequent pattern. That arises as a result of a process usually involving the subject noun phrase being fronted. It has been suggested that the fronting has arisen from a development in which clefting and fronting, which are very common in Celtic languages, became completely pervasive. A very similar development is seen in literary Middle Welsh but did not continue into Modern Welsh.
There is some tendency in many languages to switch constructions for emphasis. Particularly, sentences in English poetry are sometimes written in VSO, and Early Modern English explicitly reflects the tacit VSO order that is found in Modern English by suppressing the imperative's now-understood subject. For example, " Gather ye rosebuds while ye may" contrasts with modern "Gather rosebuds while you may".
Arabic sentences use either SVO or VSO, depending on whether the subject or the verb is more important. Sociolinguistic factors also influence sentence structure especially since colloquial varieties of Arabic generally prefer SVO, but VSO is more common in Standard Arabic. [4]
Non-VSO languages that use VSO in questions include English and many other Germanic languages such as German and Dutch, as well as French, Finnish, Mak谩, and Emilian.
In languages with V2 word order, such as most Germanic languages except for Modern English, as well as Ingush and O始odham, the verb is always the second element in a main clause. The subject precedes the verb by default, but if another word or phrase is put at the front of the clause, the subject is moved to the position immediately after the verb. For example, the German sentence Ich esse oft Rinderbraten (I often eat roast beef) is in the standard SVO word order, with the adverb oft (often) immediately after the verb. However, if that adverb is moved to the beginning of the sentence for emphasis, the subject ich (I) is moved to the third position, which places the sentence in VSO order: Oft esse ich Rinderbraten.
Linguistic typology |
---|
Morphological |
Morphosyntactic |
Word order |
Lexicon |
Word order |
English equivalent |
Proportion of languages |
Example languages | |
---|---|---|---|---|
SOV | "Cows grass eat." | 45% | Ancient Greek, Bengali, Burmese, Hindi/ Urdu, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Oromo, Persian, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish, 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, 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] ( ) |
In linguistic typology, a verb鈥搒ubject鈥搊bject (VSO) language has its most typical sentences arrange their elements in that order, as in Ate Sam oranges (Sam ate oranges). VSO is the third-most common word order among the world's languages, [3] after SOV (as in Hindi and Japanese) and SVO (as in English and Mandarin Chinese).
Language families in which all or many of their members are VSO include the following:
Many languages, such as Greek, have relatively free word order, where VSO is one of many possible orders. Other languages, such as Spanish and Romanian, allow rather free subject-verb inversion. However, the most basic, common, and unmarked form in these languages is SVO, so they are classified as SVO languages.
Standard Arabic is an example of a language that uses VSO:
賷賻賯賿乇賻兀購
yaqra始u
reads
verb
俦賱賿賲購丿賻乇賽賾爻購
l-mudarrisu
the teacher
subject
俦賱賿賰賽鬲丕亘賻
l-kit膩ba
the book
object
The teacher reads the book
^* Arabic script is written right-to-left
Another Semitic language, Biblical Hebrew, uses VSO, as in Genesis 1:1, which is seen here, and many other places in the Tanakh:
讘指旨专指讗
Bara
created
verb
讗直诇止讛执讬诐
Elohim
God
subject
讛址砖指旨讈诪址讬执诐
ha-shamayim...
the heavens
object
God created the heavens...
^* et is a particle marking the direct object of the verb.
^* The Hebrew script is written from right to left.
In Welsh, some tenses use simple verbs, which are found at the beginning of the sentence and are followed by the subject and any objects. An example is the preterite:
Siaradodd
spoke
Verb
Aled
Aled
Subject
y Gymraeg
DEF Welsh
Object
Aled spoke Welsh.
Other tenses may use compound verbs in which the conjugated form of usually bod (to be) precedes the subject and other verb-nouns come after the subject. Objects then follow the final verb-noun. Here is the usual method of forming the present tense:
Mae
is
Aux. Verb
Aled
Aled
Subject
yn siarad
V- N.speak
Verb-Noun
y Gymraeg
DEF Welsh
Object
Aled speaks Welsh.
In Irish, phrases also use VSO:
Itheann
eats
Verb
Se谩n
Se谩n
Subject
ar谩n
bread
Object
Sean eats bread.
In Irish, in forming a question, the same order is used (with an interrogative particle in front):
An itheann
Do ...eat
Verb
t煤
you
Subject
ar谩n
bread
Object
Do you eat bread?
The typological classification of Breton syntax is problematic. It has been claimed that Breton has an underlying VSO character, but it appears at first sight that V2 is the most frequent pattern. That arises as a result of a process usually involving the subject noun phrase being fronted. It has been suggested that the fronting has arisen from a development in which clefting and fronting, which are very common in Celtic languages, became completely pervasive. A very similar development is seen in literary Middle Welsh but did not continue into Modern Welsh.
There is some tendency in many languages to switch constructions for emphasis. Particularly, sentences in English poetry are sometimes written in VSO, and Early Modern English explicitly reflects the tacit VSO order that is found in Modern English by suppressing the imperative's now-understood subject. For example, " Gather ye rosebuds while ye may" contrasts with modern "Gather rosebuds while you may".
Arabic sentences use either SVO or VSO, depending on whether the subject or the verb is more important. Sociolinguistic factors also influence sentence structure especially since colloquial varieties of Arabic generally prefer SVO, but VSO is more common in Standard Arabic. [4]
Non-VSO languages that use VSO in questions include English and many other Germanic languages such as German and Dutch, as well as French, Finnish, Mak谩, and Emilian.
In languages with V2 word order, such as most Germanic languages except for Modern English, as well as Ingush and O始odham, the verb is always the second element in a main clause. The subject precedes the verb by default, but if another word or phrase is put at the front of the clause, the subject is moved to the position immediately after the verb. For example, the German sentence Ich esse oft Rinderbraten (I often eat roast beef) is in the standard SVO word order, with the adverb oft (often) immediately after the verb. However, if that adverb is moved to the beginning of the sentence for emphasis, the subject ich (I) is moved to the third position, which places the sentence in VSO order: Oft esse ich Rinderbraten.