science

Object–subject word order

Object–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–subject word order rather than just read about it. In short: In linguistic typology, object–subject (OS) word order, also called O-before-S or patient–agent word order, is a word order in which the object appears before the subject. OS is notable for its statistical rarity as a default or predominant word order among natural languages.

Key takeaways

Object–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–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–subject word order from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In linguistic typology, object–subject (OS) word order, also called O-before-S or patient–agent word order, is a word order in which the object appears before the subject. OS is notable for its statistical rarity as a default or predominant word order among natural languages. Languages with predominant OS word order display properties that distinguish them from languages with subject–object (SO) word order. The three OS word orders are VOS, OVS, and OSV. Collectively, these three orders comprise only around 2.9% of the world's languages. SO word orders (SOV, SVO, VSO) are significantly more common, comprising approximately 83.3% of the world's languages (the remaining 13.7% have free word order). Despite their low relative frequency, languages that use OS order by default can be found across a wide variety of families, including Nilotic, Austronesian, Mayan, Oto-Manguean, Chumashan, Arawakan, Cariban, Tupi–Guarani, Jê, Nadahup, and Chonan.

Examples

Tzeltal (VOS)

Selkʼnam (OVS)

Xavante (OSV)

Properties

Ditransitive constructions According to Maria Polinsky (1995), the default order of the subject and the object relative to each other in a given language determines other features of that language's syntax. In particular, languages with default SO order construct ditransitive clauses differently than languages with OS order:

The patient can also be referred to as the direct object (DO) and the causee/recipient/benefactive as the indirect object (IO). To demonstrate this principle, Polinsky provides an example sentence from Malagasy, which has V–DO–IO–S order:

Notice how in the original Malagasy, John (the direct object) precedes Jeanne (the indirect object), whereas in the English equivalent, Jeanne precedes John. English, unlike Malagasy, has S–V–IO–DO order. Another example of this phenomenon, from Päri (DO–V–S–IO order):

Note that Polinsky's principle does not state anything about the order of the indirect object and the subject relative to each other, hence the difference between Malagasy (IO–S) and Päri (S–IO) in this regard.

Correlation with ergativity Anna Siewierska (1996) suggests that ergative–absolutive alignment is overrepresented in OS languages relative to SO languages. To test this, she measured the occurrence of ergative alignment in two samples (SO vs. OS languages) across three categories: agreement, pronouns, and nouns (since some languages have different alignment systems in different categories). She then calculated the frequency of ergativity in each category relative to the sample.

Notably, full noun phrases in the OS sample (but not the SO sample) favor ergative alignment, with a majority (60%) of noun alignment in the OS sample being ergative. This is the only cell of the table with a higher than 50% frequency of ergativity. Even in the other categories, the OS sample consistently has a higher relative frequency of ergativity than the SO sample. However, Siewierska notes that her sample size of 12 OS languages is too small for a significance test. Siewierska theorizes that, in these languages, ergativity may have arisen from the reanalysis of passive clauses as active transitive clauses. The order of the patient and the agent relative to each other remained during this reanalysis, resulting in unmarked OS word order.

Object-initial word order

A notable subset of OS order is object-initial word order, in which the object appears first in the clause. This includes OVS and OSV, but not VOS (which is verb-initial, i.e. the verb appears first in the clause). In a 1979 study, Desmond C. Derbyshire and Geoffrey K. Pullum reported that predominant object-initial word order only occurs in the Amazonian language area. Amazonian languages with object-initial order include Hixkaryana, Urubu, Apurinã, Xavante, and Nadëb. However, since Derbyshire and Pullum's study, examples of languages with object-initial order have been found outside the Amazon. These include Mangarayi (Australia), Äiwoo (Melanesia), and Päri (Africa). The ancient Mesopotamian language Hurrian frequently utilizes object-initial order (OSV) in its attested writing, although it's debatable whether or not this can be considered the default order of the language. Typologically, object-initial order can be analyzed as the presence of OS order within an OV structure, since the object comes before both the subject and the verb. OV structure is most commonly found in languages with SOV order, such as Japanese and Turkish. Features generally associated with OV structure include the use of postpositions rather than prepositions (i.e. constructions like "the house in" rather than "in the house" as in English), and placement of the genitive before the noun rather than after, among other features. As for object-initial languages, Edward L. Keenan III (1978) notes that features associated with OV order are present in Hixkaryana, for example. Matthew Dryer (1997) proposes that in the case of ergative–absolutive languages that display this pattern (such as Mangarayi and Päri), the first constituent in the order is technically not the object but the absolutive, since the conventional notions of "subject" and "object" (best suited to a nominative–accusative paradigm) do not exactly apply. Thus, it may be more appropriate to describe these particular languages as absolutive-initial rather than object-initial.

Statistics The scarcity of OS as a default word order has been observed since at least 1963, when Joseph Greenberg proposed the tendency of subjects to precede objects as his first universal. Other linguists of the 20th century, such as Theo Vennemann in 1973, even stated that true OS languages were not attested at all. In 2013, Dryer surveyed 1377 languages to determine which word orders are more frequently predominant than others. His findings are summarized in the table below:

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

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

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Object–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–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–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–subject word order

In research: Object–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–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–subject word order is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Linguistic typology, Word order, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Object–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–subject word order in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Object–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–subject word order out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Object–subject word order in simple terms?

Why does Object–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–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–subject word order.