Verb–object–subject

Word
order
English
equivalent
Proportion
of languages
Example
languages
SOV "She him loves." 45% 45
 
Proto-Indo-European, Sanskrit, Hindi, Ancient Greek, Latin, French, Japanese
SVO "She loves him." 42% 42
 
English, Hausa, Indonesian, Mandarin, Russian
VSO "Loves she him." 9% 9
 
Biblical Hebrew, Arabic, Irish, Filipino, Tuareg
VOS "Loves him she." 3% 3
 
Malagasy, Baure, Proto-Austronesian
OVS "Him loves she." 1% 1
 
Apalaí, Hixkaryana
OSV "Him she loves." 0% Warao

Frequency distribution of word order in languages
surveyed by Russell S. Tomlin in 1980s[1][2] (

)

In linguistic typology, a verb–object–subject or verb–object–agent language – commonly abbreviated VOS or VOA – is one in which the most-typical sentences arrange their elements in that order: "Ate oranges Sam."

Commonly cited examples include Austronesian languages (such as Malagasy, Old Javanese, Toba Batak and Fijian) and Mayan languages (such as Tzotzil). In Hadza the word order VOS is very common, but the default is VSO.

See also

References

  1. Introducing English Linguistics International Student Edition by Charles F. Meyer
  2. Russell Tomlin, "Basic Word Order: Functional Principles", Croom Helm, London, 1986, page 22


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