science

Object–verb–subject word order

Object–verb–subject word order is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Object–verb–subject word order rather than just read about it. In short: In linguistic typology, object–verb–subject (OVS) or object–verb–agent (OVA) is a rare permutation of word order. OVS denotes the sequence object–verb–subject in unmarked expressions: Apples ate Sam, Thorns have roses.

Key takeaways

Object–verb–subject word order belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Object–verb–subject word order to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Object–verb–subject word order from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In linguistic typology, object–verb–subject (OVS) or object–verb–agent (OVA) is a rare permutation of word order. OVS denotes the sequence object–verb–subject in unmarked expressions: Apples ate Sam, Thorns have roses. The passive voice in English may appear to be in the OVS order, but that is not an accurate description. In an active voice sentence like Sam ate the apples, the grammatical subject, Sam, is the agent and is acting on the patient, the apples, which are the object of the verb, ate. In the passive voice, The apples were eaten by Sam, the order is reversed and so that patient is followed by the verb and then the agent. However, the apples become the subject of the verb, were eaten, which is modified by the prepositional phrase, by Sam, which expresses the agent, and so the usual subject–verb–(object) order is maintained. OVS sentences in English may be parsed if relating an adjective to a noun ("cold is Alaska") although cold is a predicative adjective, not an object. Rare examples of valid if idiomatic English use of OVS typology are the poetic hyperbaton "Answer gave he none" and "What say you?" Those examples are, however, highly unusual and not typical of modern spoken English.

Examples OVS languages include Äiwoo, Guarijio, Hixkaryana, Urarina, the constructed language Klingon, and to some extent Tapirapé.

Syntax sequence uses Although not dominant, OVS may be used when the object is stressed in languages that have a relatively free word order because of case marking such as Romanian, Croatian, Basque, Esperanto, Hungarian, Finnish, Russian, and to some extent German and Dutch. Some languages like Swedish and Norwegian normally lack extensive case marking but allow such structures when pronouns, which are marked for case, are involved or when the roles are clear from context. In those languages, OVS is fairly often used when the object is already marked as the topic of a discourse, and new information is added about the object. It is frequent also if there has been a discussion or question about the nature or identity of the object and that question is answered. Here are Norwegian examples of using OVS to emphasize the object: Det tror jeg ikke (lit. "That believe I not" – I do not believe that); Tom så jeg i går (lit. "Tom saw I yesterday" – I saw Tom yesterday); Fisk liker katten (lit. "Fish likes the cat" – The cat likes fish). In the last example, it is highly unlikely that fish is the subject and so that word order can be used. In some languages, auxiliary rules of word order can provide enough disambiguation for an emphatic use of OVS. For example, declarative statements in Danish are ordinarily SVnO, with "n" being is the position of negating or modal adverbs. However, OVSn may be used to emphasize the object if there is no ambiguity. Thus, Susanne elsker ikke Omar (Susanne does not love Omar) and Omar elsker Susanne ikke (Omar is someone whom Susanne does not love) have neither Omar nor Susanne marked for case but mean the same except for emphasis. The flexibility of word order in Russian also allows for OVS sentences, generally to emphasize the subject: Я закончил задание (lit. "I finished mission") versus Задание закончил я (lit. "Mission finished I" – It was I who finished the mission). In Turkish, OVS may be used to emphasize the verb. For example, Bardağı kırdı John (lit. "the glass broke John": John broke the glass) is a better answer to the question "What happened to the glass?" than the regular SOV sentence John bardağı kırdı (lit. "John the glass broke").

Absolutive–verb–ergative At least five languages have been documented (Makushi, Arekuna, Päri, Mangarayi, and Selkʼnam) that use OVS order in transitive clauses but SV order in intransitive clauses. Since all of those languages have ergative–absolutive alignment, their word order is not object–verb–subject in the traditional sense but might be more accurately described as absolutive–verb–ergative (AVE) (see also syntactic ergativity). At least three of those languages (Makushi, Arekuna, and Päri) mark absolutive agreement on a verb with a prefix and ergative agreement with a suffix, which indicates an AVE-like structure on a deeper syntactic level.

In constructed languages The object–verb–subject sequence also occurs in Interlingua although the Interlingua Grammar makes no mention of it accepting passive voice. Thomas Breinstrup, the editor-in-chief of Panorama in Interlingua, sometimes uses the sequence in articles written for Panorama. This sequence was chosen for the constructed language Klingon, a language spoken by the extraterrestrial Klingon race in the fictional universe of the Star Trek series, to make the language sound deliberately alien and counterintuitive. That sequence, like the other five, is acceptable in Esperanto.

Theoretical analysis Desmond C. Derbyshire and Geoffrey K. Pullum note that some SOV languages (such as Wichita) allow rightward movement of the subject noun phrase in certain sentences, producing OVS as a marked word order. Derbyshire and Pullum propose that languages with default OVS word order could have evolved from an earlier SOV stage, in which OVS was reanalyzed as the unmarked word order and SOV as marked.

See also Subject–object–verb Subject–verb–object Object–subject–verb Verb–object–subject Verb–subject–object Category:Object–verb–subject languages

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Object–verb–subject word order

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Object–verb–subject word order claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Object–verb–subject word order before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Object–verb–subject word order ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Object–verb–subject word order

In research: Object–verb–subject word order appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Object–verb–subject word order in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Object–verb–subject word order is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Object–verb–subject languages, Word order, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Object–verb–subject word order outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Object–verb–subject word order in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Object–verb–subject word order means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Object–verb–subject word order out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Object–verb–subject word order in simple terms?

Why does Object–verb–subject word order matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Object–verb–subject word order?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Object–verb–subject word order.