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Concept
Object–subject–verb word order
Summary
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).
Official source
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