Object–subject–verb word order

In linguistic typology, object–subject–verb (OSV) or object–agent–verb (OAV) is a classification of languages, based on whether the structure predominates in pragmatically neutral expressions. An example of this would be "Oranges Sam ate." OSV is rarely used in unmarked sentences, which use a normal word order without emphasis. Most languages that use OSV as their default word order come from the Amazon basin, such as Xavante, Jamamadi, Apurinã, Warao, Kayabí and Nadëb. Here is an example from Apurinã: British Sign Language (BSL) normally uses topic–comment structure, but its default word order when topic–comment structure is not used is OSV. Various languages allow OSV word order but only in marked sentences, which emphasise part or all of the sentence. Classical Arabic is generally VSO but allows OSV in marked sentences (ones using traditional Arabic declension). For example, Verse 5 of Al-Fatiha reads: The construction is less used in Modern Standard Arabic, which tends not to use marked sentences, and is generally absent in the colloquial varieties of Arabic, which are generally not declined and tend to observe strict SVO order. Passive constructions in Chinese follow an OSV (OAV) pattern through the use of the particle 被: In English, object-subject-verb order is atypical but can be used for contrastive focus, as in: That car we bought at least five years ago. The other one we only bought last year. Finnish has a remarkably lax word order and so emphasis on the object is often marked simply by putting it first in the sentence. An example would be "Sinua minä rakastan!", which word by word would be in English "you I love!" and which expresses a contrast to maybe loving someone else. This word order is totally natural and quite often used for emphasis. Another example would be "Suklaata se kyllä suostuu syömään", or word by word "Chocolate he/she/they(sg.) instead consents to-eat", which expresses the contrast of refusing to eat something else (like something more healthy).

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Topic-prominent language

A topic-prominent language is a language that organizes its syntax to emphasize the topic–comment structure of the sentence. The term is best known in American linguistics from Charles N. Li and Sandra Thompson, who distinguished topic-prominent languages, such as Korean and Japanese, from subject-prominent languages, such as English. In Li and Thompson's (1976) view, topic-prominent languages have morphology or syntax that highlights the distinction between the topic and the comment (what is said about the topic).

Object–verb–subject word order

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: Oranges 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 oranges, the grammatical subject, Sam, is the agent and is acting on the patient, the oranges, which are the object of the verb, ate.

Verb–object–subject word order

In linguistic typology, a verb–object–subject or verb–object–agent language, which is commonly abbreviated VOS or VOA, is one in which most sentences arrange their elements in that order. That would be the equivalent in English to "Drank cocktail Sam." The relatively rare default word order accounts for only 3% of the world's languages. It is the fourth-most common default word order among the world's languages out of the six.

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