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. It is occasionally used in English: "Him I know".
Video Object-subject-verb
Unmarked word order
Natural languages
OSV is rarely used in unmarked sentences, those using 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, 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.
Maps Object-subject-verb
Marked word order
Various languages allow OSV word order but only in marked sentences, those that emphasise part or all of the sentence.
American Sign Language
American Sign Language uses topics to set up referent loci.
ASL has a specific word order that changes, depending on the intended focus of the sentence or the context of the utterance. OSV is used most frequently when describing a scene or event, or when depicting verbs. It may also emphasise the importance of the object in question. SVO is also used, usually for direct, brief, or non-descriptive utterances.
Arabic
Arabic also allows OSV in marked sentences:
English and German
In English and German, OSV appears primarily in relative clauses if the relative pronoun is the (direct or indirect) object: "What I do is my own business" and "Was ich mache, ist meine Angelegenheit."
In English, OSV appears in the future tense or as a contrast with the conjunction but: "Rome I shall see!" and "I hate oranges but apples I'll eat!"
Hebrew
In Modern Hebrew, OSV is often used instead of the normal SVO to emphasise the subject: while ??? ???? ???? would mean "I love her", "???? ??? ????" would mean "It is she whom I love". Possibly an influence of Germanic (via Yiddish), as Jewish English uses a similar construction ("You, I like, kid")--see above --much more than many other varieties of English, and often with the "but" left implicit.
Hungarian
In Hungarian, OSV emphasises the subject:
A szócikket én szerkesztettem = The article/I/edited (It was I, not somebody else, who edited the article).
Korean and Japanese
Korean and Japanese have SOV by default, but word order is relatively free if the verb is at the end, and OSV is common if the object is topicalised.
Malayalam
OSV is one of two permissible word orders in Malayalam, the other being SOV.
Nahuatl
OSV emphasises the object in Nahuatl.
Turkish
OSV is used in Turkish to emphasise the subject:
Yeme?i ben pi?irdim = The meal/I/cooked (It was I, not somebody else, who cooked the meal).
Yiddish
OSV can be used in Yiddish to emphasize the distinctive properties of the object. That has influenced Yinglish in places like New York City, whose regional English was affected by Yiddish-speaking immigrants around the early 20th century, according to Leo Rosten. For example, in the sentence "Sure, him she loves," the emphasis, as it would be expressed in Yiddish, has been carried over into English.
See also
- Subject-object-verb
- Subject-verb-object
- Object-verb-subject
- Verb-object-subject
- Verb-subject-object
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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