Object–subject–verb Word Order

In linguistic typology, object–subject–verb (OSV) or object–agent–verb (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.''"

Unmarked word order

Natural languages

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, Apurinã, Warao, Kayabí and Nadëb.O'Grady, W. et al. ''Contemporary Linguistics'' (3rd edition, 1996) Here is an example from Apurinã:

British Sign Language (BSL) normally uses topic–comment structure, but its default word order when topic–comment structure is not used is OSV.

Marked word order

Various languages allow OSV word order but only in marked sentences, which emphasise part or all of the sentence.

Arabic

Classical Arabic is generally VSO but allows OSV in marked sentences (ones using traditional Arabic declension). For example, Verse 5 of ''Al-Fatiha'' reads:

The construction is less used in Modern Standard Arabic, which tends not to use marked sentences, and is generally absent in the colloquial varieties of Arabic, which are generally not declined and tend to observe strict SVO order.

Chinese

Passive constructions in Chinese follow an OSV (OAV) pattern through the use of the particle 被:

English

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.''

Finnish

Finnish has a remarkably lax word order and so emphasis on the object is often marked simply by putting it first in the sentence. An example would be "Sinua minä rakastan!", which word by word would be in English "you I love!" and which expresses a contrast to maybe loving someone else. This word order is totally natural and quite often used for emphasis. Another example would be "Suklaata se kyllä suostuu syömään", or word by word "Chocolate he/she/they(sg.) instead consents to-eat", which expresses the contrast of refusing to eat something else (like something more healthy).

Hebrew

In Modern Hebrew, OSV is often used instead of the normal SVO to emphasise the object. אני אוהב אותה would mean "I love her", but "אותה אני אוהב" would mean "It is ''she'' whom I love". 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.

Hungarian

In Hungarian, OSV emphasises the subject:

A szócikket én szerkesztettem = The article/I/edited (''It was I, not somebody else, who edited the article'').

Korean and Japanese

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:

An almost identical syntax is possible in Japanese:

Malayalam

OSV is one of the permissible word orders in Malayalam, the other being SOV.

Portuguese

OSV is possible in Portuguese to emphasize the object.

Turkish

OSV is used in Turkish to emphasize the subject:

See also

* Subject–object–verb
* Subject–verb–object
* Object–verb–subject
* Verb–object–subject
* Verb–subject–object
* Yoda, a popular ''Star Wars'' character who speaks in a rare object–subject–verb order
* Yoda conditions - a style of writing conditionals in computer programming languages

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Object-subject-verb

Word order