Object–subject–verb word order

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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" (meaning, Sam ate oranges).

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.^[3] Here is an example from Apurinã:^[3]

British Sign Language (BSL) normally uses topic–comment structure, but its default word order when topic–comment structure is not used is OSV.

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Various languages allow OSV word order but only in marked sentences, which emphasise part or all of the sentence.

Passive constructions in Chinese follow an OSV (OAV) pattern through the use of the particle 被:

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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.^[4]

Finnish has a remarkably lax word order^[5] and so emphasis on the object is often marked simply by putting it first in the sentence.^[6] The word by word translation in example (1) would be "you I love!" and expresses a contrast to maybe loving someone else.

This word order is totally natural and quite often used for emphasis. Example (2) expresses the contrast of refusing to eat something else (like something more healthy).

In Modern Hebrew, OSV is often used instead of the normal SVO to emphasise the object. אני אוהב אותה would mean "I love her", but "אותה אני אוהב" would mean "It is she whom I love".^[7] Possibly an influence of Germanic (via Yiddish), as Jewish English uses a similar construction ("You, I like, kid") much more than many other varieties of English and often with the "it is" left implicit.

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 have SOV by default, but since they are topic-prominent languages, they often seem to be OSV when the object is topicalized. Here is an example in Korean:

An almost identical syntax is possible in Japanese:

OSV is one of the permissible word orders in Malayalam, the other being SOV.

OSV is possible in Portuguese to emphasize the object.

OSV is used in Turkish to emphasize the subject:

• Subject–object–verb
• Subject–verb–object
• Object–verb–subject
• Verb–object–subject
• Verb–subject–object
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