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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 apples ate" would be an ordinary sentence, as opposed to the actual Standard English "Sam ate apples" which is subject–verb–object (SVO).
The term is often loosely used for ergative languages like Adyghe and Basque that really have agents instead of subjects.
Incidence
| Order | Example | Usage | Languages | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOV | "Sam apples ate." | 45% | Abaza, Abkhaz, Adyghe, Ainu, Amharic, Ancient Greek, Akkadian, Armenian, Avar, Aymara, Azerbaijani, Bambara, Basque, Bengali, Burmese, Burushaski, Chukchi, Elamite, Hindustani, Hittite, Hopi, Itelmen, Japanese, Kabardian, Korean, Kurdish, Latin, Lhasa Tibetan, Malayalam, Manchu, Mongolian, Navajo, Nepali, Nivkh, Oromo, Pali, Pashto, Persian, Quechua, Sanskrit, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu, Tigrinya, Turkish, Yukaghir | |
| SVO | "Sam ate apples." | 42% | Arabic (modern spoken varieties), Chinese, most European languages, Hausa, Hebrew, Indonesian, Kashmiri, Malay, Swahili, Thai, Vietnamese | |
| VSO | "Ate Sam apples." | 9% | Arabic (classical and modern standard), Berber languages, Biblical Hebrew, Celtic languages, Filipino, Geʽez, Kariri, Polynesian languages | |
| VOS | "Ate apples Sam." | 3% | Algonquian languages, Arawakan languages, Car, Chumash, Fijian, Malagasy, Mayan languages, Otomanguean languages, Qʼeqchiʼ, Salishan languages, Terêna | |
| OVS | "Apples ate Sam." | 1% | Äiwoo, Hixkaryana, Urarina | |
| OSV | "Apples Sam ate." | 0% | Tobati, Warao, Haida | |
| Frequency distribution of word order in languages surveyed by Russell S. Tomlin in the 1980s() | ||||
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 87% of natural languages with a preferred order).
Languages that have SOV structure include
- most Indo-Iranian languages (Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindustani, Kurdish, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Pāli, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi, Sindhi, Sinhala, Zaza)
- Ainu
- Akkadian
- Armenian
- Assyrian
- Aymara
- Basque
- Burushaski
- Cherokee
- Cushitic languages (Afar, Beja, Bilen, Oromo, Saho, Sidama, Somali)
- Dakota
- Dravidian languages (Brahui, Duruwa, Gondi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Tulu)
- Dogon languages
- Elamite
- Ethio-Semitic languages (Amharic, Tigre, Tigrinya)
- Gothic
- Ancient Greek
- Haida
- Hajong
- Hittite
- Hopi
- Ijoid languages
- Itelmen
- Japonic languages (Japanese, Hachijo, Ryukyuan)
- Korean
- Classical Latin
- Lakota
- Mande languages
- Meitei
- Mongolian
- Navajo
- Newar
- Nivkh
- Nobiin
- Omaha-Ponca
- Omotic languages
- Quechua
- Samoyedic languages
- Senufo languages
- Seri
- Sicilian
- Sunuwar
- Sumerian
- nearly all Tibeto-Burman languages, including Lhasa Tibetan and Burmese
- Tungusic languages (Evenki, Manchu)
- Turkic languages
- almost all Uto-Aztecan languages
- Yukaghir
- Zarma
- virtually all Caucasian languages.
Standard Chinese is generally SVO but common constructions with verbal complements require 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."
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
Afroasiatic languages
SOV word order is generally found in the Afroasiatic members of the Ethiopian language area (the Ethio-Semitic, Cushitic and Omotic languages).
Afar
Anu
I
Subject
makiina
car
Object
liyo
have-1SG.IND
Verb
I have a car.
Amharic
ተስፋዬ
Täsəfayē
Tesfaye
Subject
በሩን
bärun
the door
Object
ዘጋው
zägaw
closed
Verb
Tesfaye closed the door.
Oromo
Ayyantu
Ayantu
Subject
buna
coffee
Object
dhugti
drinks
Verb
Ayantu drinks coffee.
Somali
Somali generally uses the subject–object–verb structure when speaking formally.
Anaa
I
Subject
albaab-ka
door-DEF
Object
furay
opened
Verb
I opened the door
Tigre
ህቱ
Htu
He
Subject
እግል ልሽቀ
ʾəgl ləšqä
to work
Object
መጽኣ
mäṣʾa.
PST-come-3SG
Verb
He came to work.
Tigrinya
ዳኒኤል
Daniʼēl
Daniel
Subject
ኩዑሶ
kuʻuso
ball
Object
ቀሊዑ
qäliʻu
he kicked
Verb
Daniel kicked the ball.
Wolaitta
Táání
I
Subject
miishsh-áa
money-ABS.M.SG
Object
(7e)kk-áas
take-PFV.1SG
Verb
I made money.
Ainu
The following example is from Hokkaido Ainu.
クコㇿ
Ku-kor
1SG-have
Subject
アチャ
aca
father
インド
Indo
India
Object
エン
en
ALL
オマン。
oman
go
Verb
My father (lit. 'father that I have') goes to India.
Basque
Basque in short sentences, usually, subject or agent–object–verb; in long sentences, usually, subject or agent-verb-objects:
Enekok
Eneko (+ERG)
Agent
sagarra
the apple
Object
ekarri
brought (to bring)
Verb
du
AUX has
Eneko has brought the apple
Eneritzek
Eneritz (+ERG)
Parts
eskatu
asked for
Agent
du
AUX has
Verb
+ + +
+ + +
Objects
Eneritz requested the book nobody wanted to read
Dravidian languages
The Dravidian languages commonly exhibit or prefer SOV order.
Kannada
ನಾನು
Naanu
I
Subject
ಮನೆ
mane
the house
Object
ಕಟ್ಟಿದೆನು
kaTTidenu
built
Verb
I built the house.
Malayalam
ഞാൻ
ñān
I
Subject
പുസ്തകം
pustakam̥
(the) book
Object
എ
(-e)
ACC
എടുത്തു
eṭuttu
took
Verb
I took the book.
- Pustakam̥ + -e = pustakatte (പുസ്തകത്തെ)
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.
நான்
Nān
I-NOM
Subject
பெட்டியைத்
peṭṭi-yai
box-ACC
Object
திறப்பேன்.
tiṟa-pp-ēn.
open-FUT-1SG
Verb
I will open the box.
Telugu
నేను
Nēnu
I-NOM
Subject
ఇంటికి
iṇṭi-ki
home-DAT
Object
వెళ్తున్నాను
veḷ-tunnā-nu
go-PRES-1SG
Verb
I am going home.
Georgian
The Georgian language is not extremely rigid with regards to word order, but is typically either SOV or SVO.
მე
me
I
Subject
ლექსი
leksi
poem
Object
დავწერე.
davc'ere
[I]wrote
Verb
I wrote (a) poem.
Indo-European languages
SOV word order is quite common among Indo-European languages, leading to a common hypothesis that this reflects the original preferred word order of the ancestral Proto-Indo-European language. However, the question remains unsettled.
Albanian
Albanian has free word order, but generally prefers SVO. SOV occurs only in poetic language.
Agimi
Agimi
Subject
librin
the book
Object
e mori
took
Verb
Agimi took the book. (It was Agimi who took the book)
Armenian
Armenian generally prefers SOV.
Իմ
Im
my
անունը
anunə
name
Subject
Շուշանիկ
Šušanik
Shushanik
Object
է
ē
is
Verb
My name is Shushanik.
Germanic languages
Linguistic consensus holds that the Proto-Germanic language had free word order but preferred SOV. While some Germanic languages (including English and most North Germanic languages) have transitioned to SVO, SOV remains a feature of some major modern Germanic languages, including German and Dutch. However, these modern SOV Germanic languages also exhibit V2 word order, which supersedes the "default" SOV such that many sentences are rendered subject-verb-object.
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:
Ik
I
subject
wil
want to
FIN.verb
je
you
object
helpen
help
NFIN.verb
I want to help you.
Pure SOV order is found in subordinate clauses:
Ik
I
subject
zei
said
FIN.verb
dat
that
SUBORD.CONJ
ik
I
subject
je
you
object
wil
want
FIN.verb
helpen
to help
NFIN.verb
I said that I want to help you.
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:
Er
He
Subject
hat
has
Auxiliary
einen
an
Apfel
apple
Object
gegessen.
eaten.
Verb
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):
Weil
Because
Conjunction
Horst
Horst
Subject
einen
an
Apfel
apple
Object
gegessen
eaten
Verb
hat.
has.
Auxiliary
Because Horst has eaten an apple.
Gothic
The Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language, had free word order, but SOV constructions were common.
𐌲𐌿𐌼𐌰
Guma
man
Subject
𐌵𐌹𐌽𐍉𐌽
qinon
woman
Object
𐍆𐍂𐌹𐌾𐍉𐌸.
frijoþ.
loves.
Verb
The man loves the woman.
Greek (Classical)
Ancient Greek had free word order but generally preferred SOV sentences:
ὁ
ho
The
ανήρ
anḗr
man
Subject
τὸν
tòn
the
παĩδα
paîda
child
Object
φιλεῖ.
phileî
loves.
Verb
The man loves the child.
This is distinct from Modern Greek, where SVO is preferred.
Indo-Aryan languages
Vedic Sanskrit, the oldest known of the Indo-Aryan languages, was an inflected language and very flexible in word order, allowing all possible word combinations. Its descendant, Classical Sanskrit, shared this feature but generally preferred SOV sentences.
तत्त्
tát
that
Subject
(त्)वम
t(ú)vam
you
Object
सि
ási
are
Verb
That you are.
Most later Indo-Aryan languages continue to prefer SOV word order, for example:
Bengali:
আমি
ami
ami
I.SUBJ
Subject
ভাত
bʰat
bhat
rice.OBJ
Object
খাই
kʰai
khai
eat.PRES
Verb
I eat rice.
Hajong:
Moi
I
Subject
hugre'm
guava
re'
ACC
Object
kha
eat
sei.
PAST.IND
Verb
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'.
मैं
main
I
Subject
सेब
seb
apple
Object
खाता हूँ
khaataa hun
eat.PRES.M
Verb
I eat apples.
Marathi:
तो
Tō
he
Subject
बियाणे
biyāṇē
seeds
Object
पेरतो
pēratō
sows
Verb
He sows seeds.
Nepali:
म
ma
I
Subject
किताब
kitāb
book
Object
पढ्छु
paḍhchhu
read.PRES
Verb
I read a book.
Odia:
ମୁଁ
mun
I
Subject
ଏକ
eka
an
ସେଓ
seo
apple
Object
ଖାଏ
khaae
eat.PRES.M
Verb
I eat an apple.
Urdu:
میں
main
I
Subject
نے
ne
ERG
اسے
use
him/her
Object
دیکھا
dekha
saw
Verb
I saw him/her.
This preference is not fixed in all Indo-Aryan languages. Punjabi, for instance, may be characterised as following a Subject—Object—Verb typology overall, but some flexibility is permitted, and this tendency does not follow in sentences involving personal pronouns. Examples are shown here in both Shahmukhi (top, right-to-left) and Gurmukhi (bottom, left-to-right). The word forms used reflect those typical of spoken language. For Shahmukhi, vocalised forms with vowel diacritics have been used to explicitly indicate the forms used; in typical writing these are omitted in most words where regular patterns allow this information to be inferred contextually.
The following sentence exhibits the typical SOV word order tendency. The verb phrase is in retrospective perfect participle form, indicating completion of the action, and takes on the feminine plural suffixes in agreement with the gender and number of the object. The subject here is a masculine plural form; in this context it does not require agreement from the verb.
چاچے
ਚਾਚੇ
cāce
Paternal uncles
Subject
چپھّیاں
ਜੱਫੀਆਂ
japphīā̃
hugs
Object
دِتِّیاں گِیاں
ਦਿੱਤੀਆਂ ਗੀਆਂ
dittīā̃ gīā̃
given gone
Verb Phrase
The paternal uncles have given hugs.
By contrast, in the following sentence the person involved, referred to by a first-person pronoun, is the object rather than the subject. The significance of people as a semantic category takes precedent over the SOV word order tendency, and the person is typically first even in sentences where that person is the object. The pronoun "mainū̃" has the postposition "nū̃" agglutinated to it, approximately meaning "to." Abstract concepts like desires and emotions typically come "to" people as agentive subjects.
مینُوں
ਮੈਨੂੰ
mainū̃
Me-to
Object
سیب
ਸੇਬ
seb
apple
Subject
چاہِیدا
ਚਾਹੀਦਾ
cāhīda
desiring
Verb
اے
ਏ
ae
exists
Copula
I want an apple.
The copula in Punjabi is extraverbal in function. While it can constitute the predicate of a sentence on its own, it does not enter the verb phrase when used alongside a full lexical verb. Instead, it acts as a marker of existence remote to or near to the situation. Some western dialects such as Pothohari have forms of the copula to indicate occurrence of a situation in the future.
However, some Indo-Aryan languages exhibit V2 word order in combination with SOV, most prominently Kashmiri. 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:
کور
kuur
girl
Subject
چہے
chhi
is
Auxiliary
ثونٹہ
tsũũţh
apples
Object
کہیوان
khyevaan
eating
Verb
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. | ||||||||
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages almost uniformly exhibit SOV word order:
Kurdish (Kurmanji):
Ez
I
Subject
xwarin
food
Object
dixwim
eat
Verb
I eat food.
Kurdish (Sorani):
من
I
Subject
خواردن
food
Object
دەخۆم
eat
Verb
I eat food.
Ossetian:
Алан
Alan
Alan
Subject
чиныг
činyg
book
Object
кæсы
kæsy
reads
Verb
Alan reads a book.
Pashto:
زۀ
Zə
Subject
کار
kaar
Object
کوم
kawəm
Verb
I do the work.
Persian:
من
man
I
Subject
سیب
sib
apple
Object
میخورم
mikhoram
eat.1.PRES
Verb
I am eating an apple.
Talysh:
Merd
Man
Subject
kitob
book
Object
handedə
reading
Verb
The man is reading a book.
The Zaza language usually uses a subject–object-verb structure, but it sometimes uses subject-verb-object too.
O
He
Subject
ey
it
Object
kırışeno
carries
Verb
He carries it.
Italic languages
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.
Servus
Slave.NOM
Subject
puellam
girl.ACC
Object
amat
loves
Verb
The slave loves the girl.
Again, there are multiple valid translations (such as "a slave") that do not affect the overall analysis.
Romance languages
Although their common ancestor Latin had free word order and preferred SOV, the modern Romance languages lost the Latin declension that enabled free word order and in general require subject-verb-object structures. However, remnants of SOV remain, particularly the clitic object pronouns common in Romance grammar. For instance, in French:
Nous
We
Subject
les-avons.
them/those-have
Object-Verb
We have those/them
And Portuguese:
Todos
Everybody
Subject
aqui
here
te
you.PRCL
Object
amam
love
Verb
Everybody here loves you.
Aquilo
It/that
Subject
me
me.PRCL
Object
entristeceu
saddened
Verb
It saddened me.
And in Spanish:
Yo
I
Subject
lo
it
Object
como
eat
Verb
I eat it
Contrast this with the SVO structure of a sentence with an explicit object (again in Spanish):
Yo
I
Subject
como
eat
Verb
tortillas
tortillas
Object
I eat tortillas
The SOV tendency can also be seen when using auxiliary verbs, e.g. in Italian:
Io
I
Subject
lo
it
Object
sto
am
Auxiliary
mangiando
eating
Verb
I am eating it
SOV also appears in Portuguese using a temporal adverb, optionally with the negative:
Nós
We
Subject
já
already
[não]
[not]
os
them.MASC
Object
temos
have
Verb
(Positive) We already have them.
(Negative) We do not have them anymore.
Nós
We
Subject
ainda
still
[não]
[not]
os
them.MASC
Object
temos
have
Verb
(Positive) We still have them.
(Negative) We do not have them yet.
And in a suffix construction for the future and conditional tenses:
Eu
I
Subject
fá-lo-ei
do-it-will
Object
amanhã
tomorrow
Verb
I will do it tomorrow.
SVO form: Eu hei-de fazê-lo amanhã or eu farei o mesmo amanhã
Japanese
The basic principle in Japanese word order is that modifiers come before what they modify. For example, in the sentence "こんな夢を見た。" (Konna yume o mita), the direct object "こんな夢" (this sort of dream) modifies the verb "見た" (saw, or in this case had). Beyond this, the order of the elements in a sentence is relatively free. However, because the topic/subject is typically found in sentence-initial position and the verb is typically in sentence-final position, Japanese is considered an SOV language.
ジョン
Jon
John
Subject
は
wa
TOP
台所
daidokoro
kitchen
で
de
LOC
本
hon
book
Object
を
o
ACC
読み
yomi
read
Verb
ました。
mashita
POL.PAST
John read a book in the kitchen.
A closely related quality of the language is that it is broadly head-final.
Korean
내–가
Nae-ga
I-SBJ
Subject
상자–를
sangja-reul
box-OBJ
Object
열–ㄴ–다.
yeonda.
open-PRES-IND
Verb
I open the box.
–가/–이 -ga/-i is a particle that indicates the subject. –를/–을 -(r)eul is a particle that indicates the object. 나 na "I" is changed to 내– nae- before –가 -ga, and the verb stem 열– yeol- is changed to 여– yeo- before –ㄴ다 -nda.
Mongolian
Би ном уншив.
Би
Bi
I
Subject
ном
nom
a book
Object
уншив
unshiv
read
Verb
I read a book.
Quechua
Quechuan languages have standard SOV word order. The following example is from Bolivian Quechua.
Ñuqa-qa
I-TOP
Subject
papa-ta
potato-ACC
Object
mikhu-rqa-ni
eat-PAST-1SG
Verb
I ate potatoes.
Sino-Tibetan languages
SOV is believed to have been the "default" order of the protolanguage of the Sino-Tibetan family. Most Sino-Tibetan languages exhibit SOV order; however, the largest sub-branch of the family, the Sinitic or Chinese languages, are uniformly SVO, with some SOV-derived features.
Burmese
Burmese is an analytic language.
ငါ
ŋà
nga
I
Subject
က
ɡa̰
ga.
SUBJ
ရေသန့်ဘူး
seʔkù bú
se'ku bu:
water bottle
Object
ကို
ɡò
gou
OBJ
ဖွင့်
pʰwìɴ
hpwin.
open
Verb
တယ်
dè
de
PRES
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 particle 把 (bǎ) used to form an SOV sentence.
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 figuratively, and then another verb is acted on the object.[citation needed]
SOV structure is widely used in railway contact in order to clarify the objective of the order.
我
Wǒ
I
Subject
把
bǎ
sign for moving object before the verb
Sign
蘋果
píngguǒ
apple
Object
吃了.
chīle.
ate
Verb
I ate the apple. (The apple we were talking about earlier)
Meitei
ꯑꯩ
Ei
I
Subject
ꯐꯨꯠꯕꯣꯜ
football
football
Object
ꯁꯥꯅꯩ
sanei
play
Verb
I play football.
Yi
ꉢ
nga
I
Subject
ꌧꅪ
syp-hni
(an) apple
Object
ꋠ
zze.
(to) eat
Verb
I eat an apple.
Tungusic languages
The Tungusic languages exhibit SOV word order by default.
Evenki
Бэе
Beje
man
Subject
бэеткэнмэ
bejetkenme
boy-ACC
Object
ичэрэн.
ičeren
see-NFUT-3SG
Verb
The man saw the boy.
Manchu
| Sentence | ᠪᡳ ᠪᡠᡩᠠ ᠪᡝ ᠵᡝᠮᠪᡳ |
|---|---|
| Gloss | ᠪᡳ bi I Subject ᠪᡠᡩᠠ buda meal Object ᠪᡝ be ACC
ᠵᡝᠮᠪᡳ jembi eat Verb I eat a meal. |
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages all exhibit flexibility in word order, so any order is possible. However, the SOV order is the "default" one that does not connote particular emphasis on any part of the sentence; alternate orders are possible, but are used for emphasis. For instance, in Turkish, the following is the "default" way of saying "Murat ate the apple":
Murat
Murat
Subject
elmayı
apple
Object
yedi
ate
Verb
Murat ate the apple.
However, this sentence could also be constructed as OSV (Elmayı Murat yedi.), OVS (Elmayı yedi Murat.), VSO (Yedi Murat elmayı.), VOS (Yedi elmayı Murat.), or SVO (Murat yedi elmayı.), to indicate the relative importance of the subject, object, or the verb.
Similarly, in Uzbek this SOV sentence is neutral:
Anvar
Anvar.NOM
Subject
Xivaga
to Khiva.DAT
Object
ketdi.
went
Verb
Anvar went to Khiva.
(The marker "ga" is a dative case marker for the object that precedes it.)
But the sentence can be changed into OSV as well ("Xivaga Anvar ketdi") to change the emphasis ("It was Anvar who went to Khiva").
The same holds in Kazakh, where the below is neutral:
Дастан
Dastan
Dastan
Subject
кітап
kitap
book
Object
оқыды
oqıdı
read-PST
Verb
Dastan read a book.
But an OSV sentence (кітапты Дастан оқыды; it was Dastan who read the book) can be used to change the emphasis.
Other examples of SOV sentences in Turkic:
Azerbaijani:
Ümid
Umid
Subject
ağac
tree
Object
əkəcək
plant-FUT
Verb
Umid will plant a tree.
Kyrgyz:
Биз
Biz
We
Subject
алма
alma
apple
Object
жедик
jedik
eat-PST-1PL
Verb
We ate an apple.
Uralic languages
The "idealized" profile of the Uralic languages has subject-verb-object word order. However, some Uralic languages, including the most widely spoken (Hungarian) prefer SOV.
The protolanguage of the Uralic language family is understood to have exhibited SOV order.
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.
Pista
Pista
Subject
kenyeret
bread
Object
szeletel
slices
Verb
Pista slices bread.
Southern Sámi
Manne
I
Subject
gajpem
hat.ACC
Object
åastam
buy.1SG
Verb
I buy the hat.
Udmurt
Мoн
Mon
I
Subject
книгa
kńiga
a book
Object
лыӟӥськo
lydźiśko
to read
Verb
I am reading a book.
Zarma
Hama
Hama
Subject
na
COMP
mo
rice
Object
ŋwa
eat
Verb
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 (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
- Mangat Rai Bhardwaj (2016). Panjabi: A Comprehensive Grammar. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-79385-9. LCCN 2015042069. OCLC 948602857. OL 35828315M. Wikidata Q23831241.
- Ahmadi, S. (2020, December). Building a Corpus for the Zaza–Gorani Language Family. In Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on NLP for Similar Languages, Varieties and Dialects (pp. 70-78).
- Sōseki, Natsume (July 26, 1988) [First published July 25, 1908]. 夢十夜 [Ten Nights of Dreams] (in Japanese). Chikuma Shobō. ISBN 4-480-02170-1 – via Aozora Bunko.
- Makino, Seiichi; Tsutsui, Michio (March 1999) [First published March 1986]. A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. The Japan Times, Ltd. p. 16. ISBN 4-7890-0454-6.
- Futagi, Yoko (October 2004). Japanese Focus Particles at the Syntax-Semantics Interface (PDF) (PhD). Rutgers University–New Brunswick. p. 23. OCLC 60853899. Retrieved 2021-08-01.
- Siegel, Melanie; Bender, Emily M. (2004). "Head-Initial Constructions in Japanese" (PDF). In Müller, Stefan (ed.). Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Center for Computational Linguistics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications. pp. 244–260.
- "Understanding 把 (bǎ) in ten minutes". ChineseBoost.com. 28 February 2015. Archived from the original on 2022-01-21.
- 车机联控语言——铁路行车领域"共同语言"的研究 (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2020-12-18 – via Baidu.
- Bakró-Nagy, Marianne; Laakso, Johanna; Skribnik, Elena K., eds. (2022). The Oxford guide to the Uralic languages. Oxford guides to the world's languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-876766-4.
As regards constituent order, Proto-Uralic was most obviously an SOV language with postpositions.
- Janhunen, Juha. 1982. On the structure of Proto-Uralic. Finno-Ugrische Forschungen 44. 23–42. Cited in Katalin É. Kiss. 2023. The (non-)finiteness of subordination correlates with basic word order: Evidence from Uralic.
This article needs additional citations for verification Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Subject object verb word order news newspapers books scholar JSTOR August 2021 Learn how and when to remove this message 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 apples ate would be an ordinary sentence as opposed to the actual Standard English Sam ate apples which is subject verb object SVO The term is often loosely used for ergative languages like Adyghe and Basque that really have agents instead of subjects IncidenceOrder Example Usage LanguagesSOV Sam apples ate 45 45 Abaza Abkhaz Adyghe Ainu Amharic Ancient Greek Akkadian Armenian Avar Aymara Azerbaijani Bambara Basque Bengali Burmese Burushaski Chukchi Elamite Hindustani Hittite Hopi Itelmen Japanese Kabardian Korean Kurdish Latin Lhasa Tibetan Malayalam Manchu Mongolian Navajo Nepali Nivkh Oromo Pali Pashto Persian Quechua Sanskrit Sinhala Tamil Telugu Tigrinya Turkish YukaghirSVO Sam ate apples 42 42 Arabic modern spoken varieties Chinese most European languages Hausa Hebrew Indonesian Kashmiri Malay Swahili Thai VietnameseVSO Ate Sam apples 9 9 Arabic classical and modern standard Berber languages Biblical Hebrew Celtic languages Filipino Geʽez Kariri Polynesian languagesVOS Ate apples Sam 3 3 Algonquian languages Arawakan languages Car Chumash Fijian Malagasy Mayan languages Otomanguean languages Qʼeqchiʼ Salishan languages TerenaOVS Apples ate Sam 1 1 Aiwoo Hixkaryana UrarinaOSV Apples Sam ate 0 Tobati Warao HaidaFrequency distribution of word order in languages surveyed by Russell S Tomlin in the 1980s vte 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 87 of natural languages with a preferred order Languages that have SOV structure include most Indo Iranian languages Assamese Bengali Gujarati Hindustani Kurdish Marathi Nepali Odia Pali Pashto Persian Punjabi Sindhi Sinhala Zaza Ainu Akkadian Armenian Assyrian Aymara Basque Burushaski Cherokee Cushitic languages Afar Beja Bilen Oromo Saho Sidama Somali Dakota Dravidian languages Brahui Duruwa Gondi Kannada Malayalam Tamil Telugu Tulu Dogon languages Elamite Ethio Semitic languages Amharic Tigre Tigrinya Gothic Ancient Greek Haida Hajong Hittite Hopi Ijoid languages Itelmen Japonic languages Japanese Hachijo Ryukyuan Korean Classical Latin Lakota Mande languages Meitei Mongolian Navajo Newar Nivkh Nobiin Omaha Ponca Omotic languages Quechua Samoyedic languages Senufo languages Seri Sicilian Sunuwar Sumerian nearly all Tibeto Burman languages including Lhasa Tibetan and Burmese Tungusic languages Evenki Manchu Turkic languages almost all Uto Aztecan languages Yukaghir Zarma virtually all Caucasian languages Standard Chinese is generally SVO but common constructions with verbal complements require 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 uber 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 uber 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 Gurtel 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 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 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 ExamplesAfroasiatic languages SOV word order is generally found in the Afroasiatic members of the Ethiopian language area the Ethio Semitic Cushitic and Omotic languages Afar Anu makiina liyo Anu I Subjectmakiina car Objectliyo have 1SG IND Verb Anu makiina liyo I car have 1SG IND Subject Object Verb I have a car Amharic ተስፋዬ በሩን ዘጋው ተስፋዬ Tasefaye Tesfaye Subjectበሩን barun the door Objectዘጋው zagaw closed Verb ተስፋዬ በሩን ዘጋው Tasefaye barun zagaw Tesfaye the door closed Subject Object Verb Tesfaye closed the door Oromo Ayyantu buna dhugti Ayyantu Ayantu Subjectbuna coffee Objectdhugti drinks Verb Ayyantu buna dhugti Ayantu coffee drinks Subject Object Verb Ayantu drinks coffee Somali Somali generally uses the subject object verb structure when speaking formally Anaa albaabka furay Anaa I Subjectalbaab ka door DEF Objectfuray opened Verb Anaa albaab ka furay I door DEF opened Subject Object Verb I opened the door Tigre ህቱ እግል ልሽቀ መጽኣ ህቱ Htu He Subjectእግል ልሽቀ ʾegl lesqa to work Objectመጽኣ maṣʾa PST come 3SG Verb ህቱ እግል ልሽቀ መጽኣ Htu ʾegl lesqa maṣʾa He to work PST come 3SG Subject Object Verb He came to work Tigrinya ዳኒኤል ኩዑሶ ቀሊዑ ዳኒኤል Daniʼel Daniel Subjectኩዑሶ kuʻuso ball Objectቀሊዑ qaliʻu he kicked Verb ዳኒኤል ኩዑሶ ቀሊዑ Daniʼel kuʻuso qaliʻu Daniel ball he kicked Subject Object Verb Daniel kicked the ball Wolaitta Taani miishsh aa 7e kk aas Taani I Subjectmiishsh aa money ABS M SG Object 7e kk aas take PFV 1SG Verb Taani miishsh aa 7e kk aas I money ABS M SG take PFV 1SG Subject Object Verb I made money Ainu The following example is from Hokkaido Ainu クコㇿ アチャ インド エン オマン クコㇿ Ku kor 1SG have Subjectアチャ aca father インド Indo India Objectエン en ALL オマン oman go Verb クコㇿ アチャ インド エン オマン Ku kor aca Indo en oman 1SG have father India ALL go Subject Object Verb My father lit father that I have goes to India Basque Basque in short sentences usually subject or agent object verb in long sentences usually subject or agent verb objects Enekok sagarra ekarri du Enekok Eneko ERG Agentsagarra the apple Objectekarri brought to bring Verbdu AUX has Enekok sagarra ekarri du Eneko ERG the apple brought to bring AUX has Agent Object Verb Eneko has brought the apple Eneritzek eskatu du inork irakurri nahi ez zuen liburuaEneritzek Eneritz ERG Partseskatu asked for Agentdu AUX has Verb Objects Eneritzek eskatu du Eneritz ERG asked for AUX has Parts Agent Verb Objects Eneritz requested the book nobody wanted to read Dravidian languages The Dravidian languages commonly exhibit or prefer SOV order Kannada ನ ನ ಮನ ಕಟ ಟ ದ ನ ನ ನ Naanu I Subjectಮನ mane the house Objectಕಟ ಟ ದ ನ kaTTidenu built Verb ನ ನ ಮನ ಕಟ ಟ ದ ನ Naanu mane kaTTidenu I the house built Subject Object Verb I built the house Malayalam ഞ ൻ പ സ തക എട ത ത ഞ ൻ nan I Subjectപ സ തക pustakam the book Objectഎ e ACC എട ത ത eṭuttu took Verb ഞ ൻ പ സ തക എ എട ത ത nan pustakam e eṭuttu I the book ACC took Subject Object Verb I took the book Pustakam e pustakatte പ സ തകത ത 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 ந ன ப ட ட ய த றப ப ன ந ன Nan I NOM Subjectப ட ட ய த peṭṭi yai box ACC Objectத றப ப ன tiṟa pp en open FUT 1SG Verb ந ன ப ட ட ய த த றப ப ன Nan peṭṭi yai tiṟa pp en I NOM box ACC open FUT 1SG Subject Object Verb I will open the box Telugu న న ఇ ట క వ ళ త న న న న న Nenu I NOM Subjectఇ ట క iṇṭi ki home DAT Objectవ ళ త న న న veḷ tunna nu go PRES 1SG Verb న న ఇ ట క వ ళ త న న న Nenu iṇṭi ki veḷ tunna nu I NOM home DAT go PRES 1SG Subject Object Verb I am going home Georgian The Georgian language is not extremely rigid with regards to word order but is typically either SOV or SVO მე ლექსი დავწერე მე me I Subjectლექსი leksi poem Objectდავწერე davc ere I wrote Verb მე ლექსი დავწერე me leksi davc ere I poem I wrote Subject Object Verb I wrote a poem Indo European languages SOV word order is quite common among Indo European languages leading to a common hypothesis that this reflects the original preferred word order of the ancestral Proto Indo European language However the question remains unsettled Albanian Albanian has free word order but generally prefers SVO SOV occurs only in poetic language Agimi librin e mori Agimi Agimi Subjectlibrin the book Objecte mori took Verb Agimi librin e mori Agimi the book took Subject Object Verb Agimi took the book It was Agimi who took the book Armenian Armenian generally prefers SOV Իմ անունը Շուշանիկ է Իմ Im my անունը anune name SubjectՇուշանիկ Susanik Shushanik Objectէ e is Verb Իմ անունը Շուշանիկ է Im anune Susanik e my name Shushanik is Subject Object Verb My name is Shushanik Germanic languages Linguistic consensus holds that the Proto Germanic language had free word order but preferred SOV While some Germanic languages including English and most North Germanic languages have transitioned to SVO SOV remains a feature of some major modern Germanic languages including German and Dutch However these modern SOV Germanic languages also exhibit V2 word order which supersedes the default SOV such that many sentences are rendered subject verb object 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 Ik wil je helpen Ik I subjectwil want to FIN verbje you objecthelpen help NFIN verb Ik wil je helpen I want to you help subject FIN verb object NFIN verb I want to help you Pure SOV order is found in subordinate clauses Ik zei dat ik je wil helpen Ik I subjectzei said FIN verbdat that SUBORD CONJik I subjectje you objectwil want FIN verbhelpen to help NFIN verb Ik zei dat ik je wil helpen I said that I you want to help subject FIN verb SUBORD CONJ subject object FIN verb NFIN verb I said that I want to help you 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 Er hat einen Apfel gegessen Er He Subjecthat has Auxiliaryeinen an Apfel apple Objectgegessen eaten Verb Er hat einen Apfel gegessen He has an apple eaten Subject Auxiliary Object Verb 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 Weil Horst einen Apfel gegessen hat Weil Because ConjunctionHorst Horst Subjecteinen an Apfel apple Objectgegessen eaten Verbhat has Auxiliary Weil Horst einen Apfel gegessen hat Because Horst an apple eaten has Conjunction Subject Object Verb Auxiliary Because Horst has eaten an apple Gothic The Gothic language an extinct East Germanic language had free word order but SOV constructions were common 𐌲𐌿𐌼𐌰 𐌵𐌹𐌽𐍉𐌽 𐍆𐍂𐌹𐌾𐍉𐌸 𐌲𐌿𐌼𐌰 Guma man Subject𐌵𐌹𐌽𐍉𐌽 qinon woman Object𐍆𐍂𐌹𐌾𐍉𐌸 frijoth loves Verb 𐌲𐌿𐌼𐌰 𐌵𐌹𐌽𐍉𐌽 𐍆𐍂𐌹𐌾𐍉𐌸 Guma qinon frijoth man woman loves Subject Object Verb The man loves the woman Greek Classical Ancient Greek had free word order but generally preferred SOV sentences ὁ ἀnὴr tὸn paĩda fileῖ ὁ ho The anhr anḗr man Subjecttὸn ton the paĩda paida child Objectfileῖ philei loves Verb ὁ anhr tὸn paĩda fileῖ ho anḗr ton paida philei The man the child loves Subject Object Verb The man loves the child This is distinct from Modern Greek where SVO is preferred Indo Aryan languages Vedic Sanskrit the oldest known of the Indo Aryan languages was an inflected language and very flexible in word order allowing all possible word combinations Its descendant Classical Sanskrit shared this feature but generally preferred SOV sentences तत त वमस तत त tat that Subject त वम t u vam you Objectस asi are Verb तत त त वम स tat t u vam asi that you are Subject Object Verb That you are Most later Indo Aryan languages continue to prefer SOV word order for example Bengali আম ভ ত খ ইআম ami ami I SUBJ Subjectভ ত bʰat bhat rice OBJ Objectখ ই kʰai khai eat PRES Verb আম ভ ত খ ই ami bʰat kʰai ami bhat khai I SUBJ rice OBJ eat PRES Subject Object Verb I eat rice Hajong Moi hugre mre khasei Moi I Subjecthugre m guava re ACC Objectkha eat sei PAST IND Verb Moi hugre m re kha sei I guava ACC eat PAST IND Subject Object Verb 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 म स ब ख त ह म main I Subjectस ब seb apple Objectख त ह khaataa hun eat PRES M Verb म स ब ख त ह main seb khaataa hun I apple eat PRES M Subject Object Verb I eat apples Marathi त ब य ण प रत त Tō he Subjectब य ण biyaṇe seeds Objectप रत peratō sows Verb त ब य ण प रत Tō biyaṇe peratō he seeds sows Subject Object Verb He sows seeds Nepali म क त ब पढ छ म ma I Subjectक त ब kitab book Objectपढ छ paḍhchhu read PRES Verb म क त ब पढ छ ma kitab paḍhchhu I book read PRES Subject Object Verb I read a book Odia ମ ଏକ ସ ଓ ଖ ଏ ମ mun I Subjectଏକ eka an ସ ଓ seo apple Objectଖ ଏ khaae eat PRES M Verb ମ ଏକ ସ ଓ ଖ ଏ mun eka seo khaae I an apple eat PRES M Subject Object Verb I eat an apple Urdu میں نے اسے دیکھا میں main I Subjectنے ne ERG اسے use him her Objectدیکھا dekha saw Verb میں نے اسے دیکھا main ne use dekha I ERG him her saw Subject Object Verb I saw him her This preference is not fixed in all Indo Aryan languages Punjabi for instance may be characterised as following a Subject Object Verb typology overall but some flexibility is permitted and this tendency does not follow in sentences involving personal pronouns Examples are shown here in both Shahmukhi top right to left and Gurmukhi bottom left to right The word forms used reflect those typical of spoken language For Shahmukhi vocalised forms with vowel diacritics have been used to explicitly indicate the forms used in typical writing these are omitted in most words where regular patterns allow this information to be inferred contextually The following sentence exhibits the typical SOV word order tendency The verb phrase is in retrospective perfect participle form indicating completion of the action and takes on the feminine plural suffixes in agreement with the gender and number of the object The subject here is a masculine plural form in this context it does not require agreement from the verb چاچے جپھ یاں د ت یاں گ یاں ਚ ਚ ਜ ਫ ਆ ਦ ਤ ਆ ਗ ਆ چاچے ਚ ਚ cace Paternal uncles Subjectچپھ یاں ਜ ਫ ਆ japphia hugs Objectد ت یاں گ یاں ਦ ਤ ਆ ਗ ਆ dittia gia given gone Verb Phrase چاچے چپھ یاں د ت یاں گ یاں ਚ ਚ ਜ ਫ ਆ ਦ ਤ ਆ ਗ ਆ cace japphia dittia gia Paternal uncles hugs given gone Subject Object Verb Phrase The paternal uncles have given hugs By contrast in the following sentence the person involved referred to by a first person pronoun is the object rather than the subject The significance of people as a semantic category takes precedent over the SOV word order tendency and the person is typically first even in sentences where that person is the object The pronoun mainu has the postposition nu agglutinated to it approximately meaning to Abstract concepts like desires and emotions typically come to people as agentive subjects مین وں سیب چاہ یدا اے ਮ ਨ ਸ ਬ ਚ ਹ ਦ ਏ مین وں ਮ ਨ mainu Me to Objectسیب ਸ ਬ seb apple Subjectچاہ یدا ਚ ਹ ਦ cahida desiring Verbاے ਏ ae exists Copula مین وں سیب چاہ یدا اے ਮ ਨ ਸ ਬ ਚ ਹ ਦ ਏ mainu seb cahida ae Me to apple desiring exists Object Subject Verb Copula I want an apple The copula in Punjabi is extraverbal in function While it can constitute the predicate of a sentence on its own it does not enter the verb phrase when used alongside a full lexical verb Instead it acts as a marker of existence remote to or near to the situation Some western dialects such as Pothohari have forms of the copula to indicate occurrence of a situation in the future However some Indo Aryan languages exhibit V2 word order in combination with SOV most prominently Kashmiri 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 کور چہے ثونٹہ کہیوانکور kuur girl Subjectچہے chhi is Auxiliaryثونٹہ tsũũţh apples Objectکہیوان khyevaan eating Verb کور چہے ثونٹہ کہیوان kuur chhi tsũũţh khyevaan girl is apples eating Subject Auxiliary Object Verb 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 چہےTranscription gt mye eny swa kuur gt ywas tsũũţh khyevaan chhiGloss gt I brought that girl gt who apples eating isParts Main clause gt Subject Verb Object Relative clause gt Subject Object Verb AuxiliaryTranslation I brought the girl who is eating apples Iranian languages The Iranian languages almost uniformly exhibit SOV word order Kurdish Kurmanji Ez xwarin dixwim Ez I Subjectxwarin food Objectdixwim eat Verb Ez xwarin dixwim I food eat Subject Object Verb I eat food Kurdish Sorani من خواردن دەخۆممن I Subjectخواردن food Objectدەخۆم eat Verb من خواردن دەخۆم I food eat Subject Object Verb I eat food Ossetian Alan chinyg kaesy Alan Alan Alan Subjectchinyg cinyg book Objectkaesy kaesy reads Verb Alan chinyg kaesy Alan cinyg kaesy Alan book reads Subject Object Verb Alan reads a book Pashto زۀ کار کوم زۀ Ze Subjectکار kaar Objectکوم kawem Verb زۀ کار کوم Ze kaar kawem Subject Object Verb I do the work Persian من سیب می خورم من man I Subjectسیب sib apple Objectمی خورم mikhoram eat 1 PRES Verb من سیب می خورم man sib mikhoram I apple eat 1 PRES Subject Object Verb I am eating an apple Talysh Merd kitob handede Merd Man Subjectkitob book Objecthandede reading Verb Merd kitob handede Man book reading Subject Object Verb The man is reading a book The Zaza language usually uses a subject object verb structure but it sometimes uses subject verb object too O ey kiriseno O He Subjectey it Objectkiriseno carries Verb O ey kiriseno He it carries Subject Object Verb He carries it Italic languages 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 Servus puellam amatServus Slave NOM Subjectpuellam girl ACC Objectamat loves Verb Servus puellam amat Slave NOM girl ACC loves Subject Object Verb The slave loves the girl Again there are multiple valid translations such as a slave that do not affect the overall analysis Romance languages Although their common ancestor Latin had free word order and preferred SOV the modern Romance languages lost the Latin declension that enabled free word order and in general require subject verb object structures However remnants of SOV remain particularly the clitic object pronouns common in Romance grammar For instance in French Nous les avons Nous We Subjectles avons them those have Object Verb Nous les avons We them those have Subject Object Verb We have those them And Portuguese Todos aqui te amam Todos Everybody Subjectaqui here te you PRCL Objectamam love Verb Todos aqui te amam Everybody here you PRCL love Subject Object Verb Everybody here loves you Aquilo me entristeceu Aquilo It that Subjectme me PRCL Objectentristeceu saddened Verb Aquilo me entristeceu It that me PRCL saddened Subject Object Verb It saddened me And in Spanish Yo lo comoYo I Subjectlo it Objectcomo eat Verb Yo lo como I it eat Subject Object Verb I eat it Contrast this with the SVO structure of a sentence with an explicit object again in Spanish Yo como tortillasYo I Subjectcomo eat Verbtortillas tortillas Object Yo como tortillas I eat tortillas Subject Verb Object I eat tortillas The SOV tendency can also be seen when using auxiliary verbs e g in Italian Io lo sto mangiandoIo I Subjectlo it Objectsto am Auxiliarymangiando eating Verb Io lo sto mangiando I it am eating Subject Object Auxiliary Verb I am eating it SOV also appears in Portuguese using a temporal adverb optionally with the negative Nos ja nao os temos Nos We Subjectja already nao not os them MASC Objecttemos have Verb Nos ja nao os temos We already not them MASC have Subject Object Verb Positive We already have them Negative We do not have them anymore Nos ainda nao os temos Nos We Subjectainda still nao not os them MASC Objecttemos have Verb Nos ainda nao os temos We still not them MASC have Subject Object Verb Positive We still have them Negative We do not have them yet And in a suffix construction for the future and conditional tenses Eu fa lo ei amanha Eu I Subjectfa lo ei do it will Objectamanha tomorrow Verb Eu fa lo ei amanha I do it will tomorrow Subject Object Verb I will do it tomorrow SVO form Eu hei de faze lo amanha or eu farei o mesmo amanha Japanese The basic principle in Japanese word order is that modifiers come before what they modify For example in the sentence こんな夢を見た Konna yume o mita the direct object こんな夢 this sort of dream modifies the verb 見た saw or in this case had Beyond this the order of the elements in a sentence is relatively free However because the topic subject is typically found in sentence initial position and the verb is typically in sentence final position Japanese is considered an SOV language ジョンは台所で本を読みました ジョン Jon John Subjectは wa TOP 台所 daidokoro kitchen で de LOC 本 hon book Objectを o ACC 読み yomi read Verbました mashita POL PAST ジョン は 台所 で 本 を 読み ました Jon wa daidokoro de hon o yomi mashita John TOP kitchen LOC book ACC read POL PAST Subject Object Verb John read a book in the kitchen A closely related quality of the language is that it is broadly head final Korean 내가 상자를 연다 내 가 Nae ga I SBJ Subject상자 를 sangja reul box OBJ Object열 ㄴ 다 yeonda open PRES IND Verb 내 가 상자 를 열 ㄴ 다 Nae ga sangja reul yeonda I SBJ box OBJ open PRES IND Subject Object Verb I open the box 가 이 ga i is a particle that indicates the subject 를 을 r eul is a particle that indicates the object 나 na I is changed to 내 nae before 가 ga and the verb stem 열 yeol is changed to 여 yeo before ㄴ다 nda Mongolian ᠪᠢ ᠨᠣᠮ ᠤᠩᠰᠢᠪᠠBi nom unshiv Bi Bi I Subject nom nom a book Object unshiv unshiv read Verb Bi nom unshiv Bi nom unshiv Bi nom unshiv I a book read Subject Object Verb I read a book Quechua Quechuan languages have standard SOV word order The following example is from Bolivian Quechua Nuqaqa papata mikhurqani Nuqa qa I TOP Subjectpapa ta potato ACC Objectmikhu rqa ni eat PAST 1SG Verb Nuqa qa papa ta mikhu rqa ni I TOP potato ACC eat PAST 1SG Subject Object Verb I ate potatoes Sino Tibetan languages SOV is believed to have been the default order of the protolanguage of the Sino Tibetan family Most Sino Tibetan languages exhibit SOV order however the largest sub branch of the family the Sinitic or Chinese languages are uniformly SVO with some SOV derived features Burmese Burmese is an analytic language င ကရ သန ဘ က ဖ င တယ င ŋa nga I Subjectက ɡa ga SUBJ ရ သန ဘ seʔku bu se ku bu water bottle Objectက ɡo gou OBJ ဖ င pʰwiɴ hpwin open Verbတယ de de PRES င က ရ သန ဘ က ဖ င တယ ŋa ɡa seʔku bu ɡo pʰwiɴ de nga ga se ku bu gou hpwin de I SUBJ water bottle OBJ open PRES Subject Object Verb 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 particle 把 bǎ used to form an SOV sentence 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 figuratively and then another verb is acted on the object citation needed SOV structure is widely used in railway contact in order to clarify the objective of the order 我把蘋果吃了 我 Wǒ I Subject把 bǎ sign for moving object before the verb Sign蘋果 pingguǒ apple Object吃了 chile ate Verb 我 把 蘋果 吃了 Wǒ bǎ pingguǒ chile I sign for moving object before the verb apple ate Subject Sign Object Verb I ate the apple The apple we were talking about earlier Meitei ꯑ ꯐ ꯠꯕ ꯜ ꯁ ꯅ ꯑ Ei I Subjectꯐ ꯠꯕ ꯜ football football Objectꯁ ꯅ sanei play Verb ꯑ ꯐ ꯠꯕ ꯜ ꯁ ꯅ Ei football sanei I football play Subject Object Verb I play football Yi ꉢꌧꅪꋠ ꉢ nga I Subjectꌧꅪ syp hni an apple Objectꋠ zze to eat Verb ꉢ ꌧꅪ ꋠ nga syp hni zze I an apple to eat Subject Object Verb I eat an apple Tungusic languages The Tungusic languages exhibit SOV word order by default Evenki Bee beetkenme icheren Bee Beje man Subjectbeetkenme bejetkenme boy ACC Objecticheren iceren see NFUT 3SG Verb Bee beetkenme icheren Beje bejetkenme iceren man boy ACC see NFUT 3SG Subject Object Verb The man saw the boy Manchu Sentence ᠪᡳ ᠪᡠᡩᠠ ᠪᡝ ᠵᡝᠮᠪᡳGloss ᠪᡳ bi I Subjectᠪᡠᡩᠠ buda meal Objectᠪᡝ be ACC ᠵᡝᠮᠪᡳ jembi eat Verb ᠪᡳ ᠪᡠᡩᠠ ᠪᡝ ᠵᡝᠮᠪᡳ bi buda be jembi I meal ACC eat Subject Object Verb I eat a meal Turkic languages The Turkic languages all exhibit flexibility in word order so any order is possible However the SOV order is the default one that does not connote particular emphasis on any part of the sentence alternate orders are possible but are used for emphasis For instance in Turkish the following is the default way of saying Murat ate the apple Murat elmayi yedi Murat Murat Subjectelmayi apple Objectyedi ate Verb Murat elmayi yedi Murat apple ate Subject Object Verb Murat ate the apple However this sentence could also be constructed as OSV Elmayi Murat yedi OVS Elmayi yedi Murat VSO Yedi Murat elmayi VOS Yedi elmayi Murat or SVO Murat yedi elmayi to indicate the relative importance of the subject object or the verb Similarly in Uzbek this SOV sentence is neutral Anvar Xivaga ketdi Anvar Anvar NOM SubjectXivaga to Khiva DAT Objectketdi went Verb Anvar Xivaga ketdi Anvar NOM to Khiva DAT went Subject Object Verb Anvar went to Khiva The marker ga is a dative case marker for the object that precedes it But the sentence can be changed into OSV as well Xivaga Anvar ketdi to change the emphasis It was Anvar who went to Khiva The same holds in Kazakh where the below is neutral Dastan kitap okydy Dastan Dastan Dastan Subjectkitap kitap book Objectokydy oqidi read PST Verb Dastan kitap okydy Dastan kitap oqidi Dastan book read PST Subject Object Verb Dastan read a book But an OSV sentence kitapty Dastan okydy it was Dastan who read the book can be used to change the emphasis Other examples of SOV sentences in Turkic Azerbaijani Umid agac ekecek Umid Umid Subjectagac tree Objectekecek plant FUT Verb Umid agac ekecek Umid tree plant FUT Subject Object Verb Umid will plant a tree Kyrgyz Biz alma zhedik Biz Biz We Subjectalma alma apple Objectzhedik jedik eat PST 1PL Verb Biz alma zhedik Biz alma jedik We apple eat PST 1PL Subject Object Verb We ate an apple Uralic languages The idealized profile of the Uralic languages has subject verb object word order However some Uralic languages including the most widely spoken Hungarian prefer SOV The protolanguage of the Uralic language family is understood to have exhibited SOV order 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 Pista kenyeret szeletel Pista Pista Subjectkenyeret bread Objectszeletel slices Verb Pista kenyeret szeletel Pista bread slices Subject Object Verb Pista slices bread Southern Sami Manne gajpem aastam Manne I Subjectgajpem hat ACC Objectaastam buy 1SG Verb Manne gajpem aastam I hat ACC buy 1SG Subject Object Verb I buy the hat Udmurt Mon kniga lyӟӥcko Mon Mon I Subjectkniga kniga a book Objectlyӟӥsko lydzisko to read Verb Mon kniga lyӟӥsko Mon kniga lydzisko I a book to read Subject Object Verb I am reading a book Zarma Hama na mo ŋwa Hama Hama Subjectna COMP mo rice Objectŋwa eat Verb Hama na mo ŋwa Hama COMP rice eat Subject Object Verb Hama ate rice See alsoTopic prominent language Subject verb object Object subject verb Object verb subject Verb object subject Verb subject object Category Subject object verb languagesReferencesMeyer Charles F 2010 Introducing English Linguistics 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 Mangat Rai Bhardwaj 2016 Panjabi A Comprehensive Grammar Abingdon on Thames Routledge ISBN 978 1 138 79385 9 LCCN 2015042069 OCLC 948602857 OL 35828315M Wikidata Q23831241 Ahmadi S 2020 December Building a Corpus for the Zaza Gorani Language Family In Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on NLP for Similar Languages Varieties and Dialects pp 70 78 Sōseki Natsume July 26 1988 First published July 25 1908 夢十夜 Ten Nights of Dreams in Japanese Chikuma Shobō ISBN 4 480 02170 1 via Aozora Bunko Makino Seiichi Tsutsui Michio March 1999 First published March 1986 A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar The Japan Times Ltd p 16 ISBN 4 7890 0454 6 Futagi Yoko October 2004 Japanese Focus Particles at the Syntax Semantics Interface PDF PhD Rutgers University New Brunswick p 23 OCLC 60853899 Retrieved 2021 08 01 Siegel Melanie Bender Emily M 2004 Head Initial Constructions in Japanese PDF In Muller Stefan ed Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar Center for Computational Linguistics Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Stanford CA CSLI Publications pp 244 260 Understanding 把 bǎ in ten minutes ChineseBoost com 28 February 2015 Archived from the original on 2022 01 21 车机联控语言 铁路行车领域 共同语言 的研究 in Chinese Archived from the original on 2020 12 18 via Baidu Bakro Nagy Marianne Laakso Johanna Skribnik Elena K eds 2022 The Oxford guide to the Uralic languages Oxford guides to the world s languages Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 876766 4 As regards constituent order Proto Uralic was most obviously an SOV language with postpositions Janhunen Juha 1982 On the structure of Proto Uralic Finno Ugrische Forschungen 44 23 42 Cited in Katalin E Kiss 2023 The non finiteness of subordination correlates with basic word order Evidence from Uralic
