Custom essays on SOV Languages

The word order typology (in the sentence) is one of the possible systems of typological classifications of the language, which is used within the linguistic typology. It is grounded on the basis order type, which has subject, verb and object (often regarded to as direct object) as a primary within the classification. There exists 6 possible types of the language:
 SVO — Subject Verb Object
 SOV — Subject Object Verb
 VSO — Verb Subject Object
 VOS — Verb Object Subject
 OSV — Object Subject Verb
 OVS — Object Verb Subject
This division is generally used as abbreviated and actually is often regarded to as language typology.
In the languages with the fixed word order in the sentence, there is not significant difficulty to signify the type of the language. But there should be noted that there exists a number of nuances. In some languages the verb could stand without auxiliary part and infinitive or participle, between which a subject or an object are placed. For example the German language: “Im Wald habe ich einen Fuchs gesehen”, Dutch : “Hans vermoedde dat Jan Piet Marie zag leren zwemmen” and Welsh
“Mae’r gwirio sillafu wedi’i gwblhau” the compound part of the verb are marked by the italics.
In this case, to signify the typology there are observed such types of sentences, where the verb is not separated on several parts (for example non-analytical tense of the verb is taken) or the language is clasasified according to the location of the auxiliary part. For example the German language is regarded to SVO/VSO language type (without Im Wald the subject is on the first place in the main sentence) and the Welsh language is defined as VSO language type.

Typological studies of SVO languages
German as well as Dutch are often Classified as the V2 languages, which have the verb always on the second place in the full sentence. Hence a number of languages have non-linear word order and that creates a certain problem within the classification. “Languages with no free or bound morphological marking of core arguments (here isolating languages) typically employ linear order for distinguishing who is doing what to whom. The linear order in such languages is typically SVO. A sample of roughly 300 languages, based on the WALS database and my own studies, contained 21 isolating languages. Of these 21 languages, 17 (81 %) had SVO word order and 4 (19%) had SOV order (multiple languages from the same genera were not counted). Thus, the proportion of isolating languages with SOV word order may be around as low as 1 % in the world’s languages despite an overall preference for SOV. Notably, it also seems that isolating languages disallow V- and O-initial orders” (Kaius Sinnemaeki, 2006). We see how difficult and complicating is the studies of the language typology. Hence through a number of studies there have been developed a number of approaches to signify the language type. In the case of non-linear word order the frequency of different types usage is examined within the affirmative main sentence in the neutral context, the preferable type of speech is RP of elder age.

Using these criteria for the investigation we could number out the languages, which are signified as SVO. Among them we could mention English, Russian and Chinese, as SVO sentence type is the word order type, which is met very often (yet, there are possible a number of other variants within the text). The deviation from the standard word order is possible in the number of inflectional languages (such as Russian, Latin and Greek). Hence such type of the word order is generally supposed signifying either particular component of the sentence or special context. The poetry of these languages often requires changes in the word order according to the demands of the Rhyme. When in the signed circumstances there could not be observed the directly signed preferences, than the language is observed as the one that deals with the non-linear word order in its structure.
One more significant problem in this case is the fact that among the dead languages (Latin, Ancient Greek and the Church Slavonic languages) the linguists traditionally deal with the written issues, which are mainly written in poetic, artistic or archaic style, which is badly reflecting the norms of everyday life communicative practice. Sophocles and Cicero communicative language could significantly differ and we could observe this according to the written signs of their written heritage. It goes without saying that classification and typology in the contemporary facilities, when the languages are constantly changing is not an easy task. That is why investigative practice and researches of the different scientists could be quite controversial and contradictory. It goes without saying that there also exist a number of approaches to study the language typology and we observed just one of them