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A subject-gapped RC behaves differently in Cantonese from English by being after the head noun (prenominal RC), which always yields a VOS order. It is extremely rare for SVO languages to adopt a prenominal RC structure. In a sample of 756 languages, only 5 languages have that VOS combination (less than 0.01%), one of which is Cantonese. [10]
An example of SVO order in English is: Andy ate cereal. In an analytic language such as English, subject–verb–object order is relatively inflexible because it identifies which part of the sentence is the subject and which one is the object. ("The dog bit Andy" and "Andy bit the dog" mean two completely different things, while, in case of ...
In linguistic typology, a verb–subject–object (VSO) language has its most typical sentences arrange their elements in that order, as in Ate Sam apples (Sam ate apples). VSO is the third-most common word order among the world's languages, [1] after SOV (as in Hindi and Japanese) and SVO (as in English and Mandarin Chinese).
In linguistic typology, a subject–object–verb (SOV) language is one in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence always or usually appear in that order. If English were SOV, "Sam apples ate" would be an ordinary sentence, as opposed to the actual Standard English "Sam ate apples" which is subject–verb–object (SVO).
In an active voice sentence like Sam ate the apples, the grammatical subject, Sam, is the agent and is acting on the patient, the apples, which are the object of the verb, ate. In the passive voice, The apples were eaten by Sam , the order is reversed and so that patient is followed by the verb and then the agent.
In linguistic typology, the object–subject–verb (OSV) or object–agent–verb (OAV) word order is a structure where the object of a sentence precedes both the subject and the verb. Although this word order is rarely found as the default in most languages, it does occur as the unmarked or neutral order in a few Amazonian languages ...
The internal structure of the VP allows a wide range of complements – most notably one or two objects – along with any adjuncts. English is an SVO language, that is, in simple declarative sentences the order of the main components is SUBJECT + HEAD-VP where the basic VP consists of HEAD-VERB + OBJECT.
The Relevance Principle: The reference of the subject (phrase) determines in part, the relevance of what is said, regardless of what it is, to the addressee. In a typical sentence, the subject is the same as the topic, i.e. the thing that is being talked about. Thus, in a language that puts the subject first, a listener can immediately ...