Talk:Verb–object–subject word order

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 5 September 2019 and 10 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Gabrielchung1998, Reanna f, Synquack, Krystaldhar.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 12:19, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled
These languages aren't VOS in any strict sense of the word. In fact, the whole concept of "subject" may be misleading: there's a lot of debate with many AN languages about whether they even have subjects. Anyway, not a clear case. kwami 23:52, 2005 May 4 (UTC)
 * I'm fairly sure that Malagasy is consistently specifier-final and head-initial, so is probably underlyingly VOS.BovineBeast 18:21, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Where does Yoda say "Go to Dagobah, you must?" Yes, he does have a distinguished manner of speech, but he never actually says those exact words. Since he's not seen in Episodes V and VI except already on Dagobah, it's hard to attribute such a directive to him. Blue william 02:07, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Isnt Classical Arabic VOS, when using a personal pronoun suffix? e.g. أريده الناس ʔuri:duhu n-na:su "the people wanted it"?

I think you mean أراده الناس

Arabic language can have VOS(look to qoran)typology,for example:qata' nawatan al qittu =cutted a nut(-accusative suffix)the cat(-nominative suffix).قطعَ نواةً القطُ
Arabic language can have VOS(look to qoran)typology,for example:qata' nawatan al qittu =cutted a nut(-accusative suffix) the cat(-nominative suffix).قطعَ نواةًالقطُ

Humanbyrace (talk) 11:30, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

Arabic, and as a prime example, too?!
While VOS can occur in Arabic, it is certainly not the most prevalent order! In fact, except for one syntactical construction, which could also be analysed differently, VOS in Arabic is very rare.

The most prevalent word order in Classical Arabic is VSO. In case the object is a pronoun attached to the verb we get something that could be thought of as VOS, but as the object in these cases is part of the verb, this can also be seen simply as VS.

The example currently cited in the article (28th Ayah from Surat Fatir: إِنَّمَا يَخْشَى اللَّهَ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ الْعُلَمَاء) is a very atypical example; indeed, for many native Arabic speakers this Ayah seems strange and not at all easy to understand.

188.169.229.30 (talk) 10:46, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Upcoming Changes (UBC Linguistics, 2017)
In the coming week and ongoing until December 13th, some changes will be coming to this entry as a part of a University of British Columbia Linguistics course. We have attached a rough outline of the sections we wish to include, any input is welcome.

Outline: (1)Introduction (What is VOS, what languages exhibit this form) (2)Typology (background properties of VOS grammar) (3)Example languages (Malagasy, Salish, Tzotzil, including graphics of trees) (4)Discussion on the ongoing debate about the underlying structures of VOS languages — Preceding unsigned comment added by M.brondizio (talk • contribs) 21:23, 21 November 2017 (UTC) User:Drmies This is an assignment, so there is no professor working on the page with us, but she will be reviewing it at the end of this process in a few days (Dec 11). We have thoroughly cited our sources throughout and are working on making gradual changes to the page to elevate it from a stub status.M.brondizio (talk) 22:11, 6 December 2017 (UTC)
 * M.brondizio, is there a professor here? I don't see anything in y'all's edits that indicates that. Drmies (talk) 21:24, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

If you feel that our input on this Wiki page is unjustified, please let us know what we can do to improve it. Also, I am a part of the UBC Linguistic group so don't hesitate to give me feedbacks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 브라이언박 (talk • contribs) 23:26, 6 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Oh, I wasn't looking for trouble, but I saw a bunch of references with problems during an edit. But I see is on the case, and they have forgotten more about Wikipedia than I'll ever know (thank you Nihonjoe). M.brondizio, 브라이언박,, I'm not a big fan of throwing students into Wikipedia unless they've had some practice editing. For two of you I left the "student" welcome on your talk page, which may have some helpful tips. Good luck, Drmies (talk) 02:41, 7 December 2017 (UTC)

Latest Change
I just put up some empty headings for upcoming entries. I am also a part of the UBC Linguistics assignment group. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kyra.Hayter (talk • contribs) 01:41, 26 November 2017 (UTC)

I have put in Malagasy as an example language and an example sentence. M.brondizio (talk) 22:25, 26 November 2017 (UTC)M.Brondizio

I have added in the special case of Italian VOS order, taken primarily from Sandra Chung's "Properties of VOS Languages" which uses examples from Luigi Burzio's work on Italian syntax. M.brondizio (talk) 23:12, 4 December 2017 (UTC)

I have put in Tzotzil as an example language and added an example sentence. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 브라이언박 (talk • contribs) 04:58, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

Updating with Salish language examples
Hi all, I am also a part of the UBC Linguistics class that is updating this page for a group project. I will be updating the page with some examples of Indigenous languages where VOS is a feature tonight and tomorrow. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bridgetchase (talk • contribs) 06:02, 5 December 2017 (UTC)

Please use citation templates
Please use citation templates. Please pay especial attention to the section on using the same citation multiple times. Doing this will make it so other editors don't have to come and clean up the references at a later time. Thanks. ··· 日本穣 ·  投稿  · Talk to Nihonjoe ·  Join WP Japan ! 19:11, 7 December 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for all of your help with citations, we really appreciate it! We are all continuing to learn the Wikipedia formatting, and we are very grateful for the help. Bridgetchase (talk) 11:42, 12 December 2017 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:VO language which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 03:34, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Cantonese table formating
The 錫公雞 table isn't as clear, due to more items in each table cell than the other tables. Jidanni (talk) 02:42, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

Most logical word order for baby adopting first language
VOS is the most logical word order for initial grammar structuring for a baby adopting whatever may be its first language, because verbs carry most information, object is also important but somewhat less and subjects can be construed from the context, because babies do not carry out philosophical discussions but immediate informative communication.

So the baby starts with "give + milk + baby (ie him/her-self) + momma", not "Mom, give me milk" or "catch/grab + toy + baby" and not "I want to have that toy" or "fall + hurt + leg + baby", not "I fell and hurt my leg" etc.

I am giving examples in English but this goes for all languages as far as I know (granted, I speak just 13, of which 3 Asian, 1 non-IE European and the rest Indo-European).

So this seems to me by far most primordial. Anyway... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Martijnk (talk • contribs) 02:33, 16 July 2023 (UTC)


 * Pretty interesting speculation, even though some sources would be advised. 2A02:A03F:6994:B100:F85D:522D:199:AEBA (talk) 21:02, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

Italian IS SVO, but it can also be OVS or VSO
Mainly in Italian the phrase formation used is SVO (Io (I) Mangio (Eat) La Pasta (Pasta) but you could also say “ La (referring to Pasta) Mangi (Eat) Tu(You)?” Which means “Are you eating it (literally do you eat it?)?” Or also, even if it sounds cacophonous, you can say “Mangi tu la pasta?” “Eat you pasta?”. This is not a discussion, just an explanation of the edit I’m about to do. Antonio TorQ (talk) 18:03, 19 November 2023 (UTC)