Subject Verb Object
In
linguistic typology,
subject-verb-object (SVO) is the sequence 'subject verb object' in neutral expressions:
Sam ate oranges. Languages are classified according to the dominant sequence of these constitutents of sentences. This sequence is the second most common.
English,
French,
Kiswahili, and
Indonesian are examples of languages that follow this pattern.
An example of this order in English is:
- I played a game of Go yesterday.
In this,
I is the subject,
a game of Go is the object and
played is the verb.
The other permutations, in order of how common they are:\n*
Subject Object Verb (e.g.,
Japanese,
Persian,
Latin,
Turkish,
Tibetan,
Tamil,
Quechua) \n*
Verb Subject Object (e.g.,
Welsh, classical
Arabic,
Hawaiian,
Berber)\n*
Verb Object Subject (e.g.,
Fijian, Terena,
Malagasy)\n*
Object Subject Verb (e.g.,
Jamamadi,
Xavante)\n*
Object Verb Subject (e.g., Guarijio,
Hixkaryana)
Some languages are mixed: in
German, SVO is basic, but finite verbs appear after the subject when they appear in the main clause:
Günther ist nach Berlin gefahren,
Gunther has travelled to Berlin (where
ist is the finite verb, directly after the
subject Günther, and
gefahren is a non-finite verb, a past participle, in the standard verb-final position). German verbs appear
before their subjects when an adverb or modifying the verb, or a phrase acting as such an adverb, is at the beginning of the sentence.
Rare sequences are often used for effect in
fiction, to mark a character's speech as alien. Examples include the
Klingon language (OVS) and
Yoda in
Star Wars (OSV: "a brave man your father was").
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