In
linguistic typology
Linguistic typology (or language typology) is a field of linguistics that studies and classifies languages according to their structural features to allow their comparison. Its aim is to describe and explain the structural diversity and the co ...
, a verb–subject–object (VSO) language has its most typical sentences arrange their elements in that order, as in ''Ate Sam apples'' (Sam ate apples). VSO is the third-most common
word order among the world's languages, after
SOV (as in
Hindi
Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
and
Japanese) and
SVO (as in
English and
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...
).
Language families in which all or many of their members are VSO include the following:
* the
Insular Celtic languages (including
Irish,
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
,
Manx,
Welsh,
Cornish and
Breton)
* the
Afroasiatic languages (including
Berber
Berber or Berbers may refer to:
Ethnic group
* Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa
* Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
Places
* Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
People with the surname
* Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
,
Assyrian,
Egyptian,
Classical and
Modern Standard Arabic
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA) is the variety of Standard language, standardized, Literary language, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in some usages al ...
,
Biblical Hebrew
Biblical Hebrew ( or ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite languages, Canaanitic branch of the Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Isra ...
, and
Ge'ez)
* the
Austronesian languages (including
Tagalog,
Visayan,
Pangasinan,
Kapampangan,
Kadazan Dusun,
Hawaiian,
Māori, and
Tongan).
* the
Salishan languages
* many
Mesoamerican languages, such as the
Mayan languages and
Oto-Manguean languages
* many
Nilotic languages (including
Nandi and
Maasai)
Many languages, such as Greek, have relatively
free word order
In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntax, syntactic Constituent (linguistics), constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how languages em ...
, 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.
Languages
Semitic languages
Standard Arabic is an example of a language that uses VSO:
Arabic script is written right-to-left
Another Semitic language,
Biblical Hebrew
Biblical Hebrew ( or ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite languages, Canaanitic branch of the Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Isra ...
, uses VSO, as in
Genesis 1:1, which is seen here, and many other places in the
Tanakh:
''et'' is a particle marking the direct object of the verb.
The Hebrew script
The Hebrew alphabet (, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is a unicase, unicameral abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewish languages, most notably ...
is written from right to left.
Celtic languages
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:
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:
In
Irish, phrases also use VSO:
In Irish, in forming a question, the same order is used (with an
interrogative particle in front):
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.
Inversion to VSO
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
Early Modern English (sometimes abbreviated EModEFor example, or EMnE) or Early New English (ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transit ...
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.
Feature 81A: Order of Subject, Object and Verb
/ref>
Non-VSO languages that use VSO in questions include English and many other Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoke ...
such as German and Dutch, as well as French, Finnish, Maká, and Emilian.
In languages with V2 word order, such as most Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoke ...
except for Modern English, as well as Ingush and Oʼodham, 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''.
See also
* Polish notation
* :Verb–subject–object languages
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Verb-subject-object
Word order