In the linguistic typology, the language VOS ( English Verb-Object-Subject language ) is called such a language in which the basic order of the components (the term “ basic word order ” is also used) is the order “predicate - object - subject”. The terms “subject” ( English subject ) and “object” ( English object ) in this case are not used strictly, but to refer to the agenic and patient participants in the situation [1] .
The following criteria are used to determine the basic order of the components : pragmatic (as well as phonetic, morphological and syntactic) neutrality and frequency in the corpus of texts. In addition, sentences from the sample, on the basis of which the conclusion is drawn, should be syntactically independent (and not relative ), declarative (narrative) and containing full argument nouns (and not pronouns, in which the order may differ) [1] . For more information see the article Typology of Word Order .
Content
Languages with basic VOS order
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| Map WALS 81A: Order of Subject, Object and Verb. | |
In a sample of 1377 languages on the map of the World Atlas of Language Structures 81A, 25 languages with the basic VOS order are found, which are found in Oceania and America , as well as in Madagascar and the Malay archipelago . Examples of such languages are the Wari language ( South America ), the Toba language ( Sumatra ), the Kiribati language ( Micronesia ). For example, in the Nias language ( Indonesia , Nias island):
| (one) | man uri | zawi | Vasui |
| holds | cattle | Fasui | |
| V | O | S | |
| 'Fasui holds cattle.' | |||
In Malagasy ( Madagascar ):
| (2) | Mamaky | 'boky | [ ny | mpianatra ]. |
| is reading | book | [DEF [2] | student] | |
| V | O | S | ||
| 'A student is reading a book.' | ||||
Or in Kakchykelsky language ( Guatemala ):
| (3) | Xupaxij | b'ojoy | achin | |
| smashed | pot | the man | ||
| V | O | S | ||
| 'The man broke the pot.' | ||||
Despite the fact that the percentage of VOS languages out of the total number of idioms analyzed, it cannot be argued that the study presents all existing languages with this basic order: some languages could be inaccurately attributed, others simply were not included in the sample. In addition, in languages with a relatively free order of words, syntactic constructions are possible that provide for such an arrangement of components , for example, Russian. 'This lady has seen the views!'
VOS and other orders and typologies
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| Map WALS 81B: Languages with two Dominant Orders of Subject, Object, and Verb. | |
Not for all languages it is possible to unambiguously determine the basic order of the components , therefore, in the World Atlas of Language Structures there is a separate map for languages in which two dominant orders are distinguished. Of the five groups, the VOS order is involved in two: VSO or VOS (14 languages) and SVO or VOS (8 languages). The former include, for example, the Fijian language ( Fiji ) and the Mowima language ( Bolivia ), among the second, the Toba language ( Sumatra ) and the Lacandon language ( Mexico ) can be noted. This typology is even less accurate in view of the obvious increase in the number of differences between languages falling into the same class.
| External Images | |
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| Map WALS 82A: Order of Subject and Verb. | |
| Map WALS 83A: Order of Object and Verb. | |
In addition, we should mention the alternative classifications of languages, also carried out by M. Dreyer: typologies of the order of the verb and subject [3] and typologies of the order of the verb and object [4] . According to the first classification, VOS languages are of type VS (that is, with the postposition of the subject) represented in the sample of the World Atlas of language structures much less frequently than the type with the subject's position - the ratio is 194/1193. If we talk about the second of these classifications, then it defines VOS languages as languages of the right branch VO, which, according to the atlas , are as frequency as the languages of the left branch OV.
See also
- Linguistic typology
- Typology of word order
- Universal (Linguistics)
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Dryer 2013c
- ↑ Definite Article
- ↑ Dryer 2013b
- ↑ Dryer 2013a
Literature
in Russian
- Zhurinskaya M. A. Typological classification of languages (Russian) // Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary. Ch. ed. V. N. Yartseva .. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1990. - S. 511-512 .
in English
- Dryer, Matthew S. Order of Object and Verb // Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin (eds.) The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. - Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 2013a.
- Dryer, Matthew S. Order of Subject and Verb // Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin (eds.) The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. - Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 2013b.
- Dryer, Matthew S. Order of Subject, Object and Verb (Eng.) // Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin (eds.) The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. - Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 2013c.
- Greenberg, Joseph H. Some Universals of Grammar with Particular Reference to the Order of Meaningful Elements (English) // Greenberg, Joseph H. (ed.), Universals of Human Language. - Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press., 1963. - S. 73-113 .