Comments on: How syntax can help you!

By: Juliette Wade

Juliette Wade — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:39:54 +0000

Thanks, Sean. A very cool example. Sign language is really interesting structurally because of the way it can take advantage of visual structure, like placing antecedents (he/she) at particular locations and then using a verb relative to them.

By: Sean

Sean — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:58:09 +0000

American Sign Language has a syntax that varies depending on the situation. It could be SOV or could have the object and verb combined in one sign. For example:

English: He helped her
ASL: HE Help-her

The “help-her” part is where the sign “help” starts at where the signer said “he” was and ends at where “her” is. And even there, the sign “he” could be left out completely and you can just sign the “help-her” part.

By: lunch hour links for writers – 9/16/09 « helluo librorum

lunch hour links for writers – 9/16/09 « helluo librorum — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:18:33 +0000

[...] writers will enjoy learning new ways to reflect alien/foreign syntax with Juliette Wade’s article How Syntax Can Help You. She talks about ways you can reflect your character’s ethnicity or alien speech patterns by [...]

By: Gary Lucas

Gary Lucas — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:09:18 +0000

It’s a bit of a stretch, but in computers, there’s a concept called the Reverse-Polish Notation (RPN) that is a VSO form. For example, instead of writing the expression a+b, the RPN form would be +ab. The operator (verb) is writen first followed by the subject and object (or maybe two subjects, there’s a certain democracy in the whole thing). The RPN is used as an intermediate form in a number of important algorithms related to translating computer languages from a form that a human being can read to instructions that the computer can use. There are a number of speciality computer languages, Forth and Postscript for example, that are actually based on an RPN approach.

By: Ahmed A. Khan

Ahmed A. Khan — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:51:32 +0000

Some sentences in Arabic are VSO.

Example from Qur’an:

…yureed Allaho leyuzhiba ankum ur-rijz…

Translation:

Intends God to keep away from you impurities

By: Juliette Wade

Juliette Wade — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:34:20 +0000

Thanks so much for these comments and examples! I’ll add Tagalog and Gaelic to my mental list of interesting languages to mention when syntax comes up.

By: NV

NV — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:46:24 +0000

Gaelic is VSO; it was used in a great many of my Syntax I examples. Then there are the languages which use morphology to mark subjects, verbs and objects, like Tagalog in the previous commenter’s example; those would put use word order for emphasis of a particular word or to distinguish definite from indefinite; Russian and Latin are examples.

By: Isaac

Isaac — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:41:58 +0000

Enjoyed your post!

Tagalog uses VSO in a lot of its structures. It also uses marker words before the Subject and the Object to determine the role of the words in the sentence.

Ex: Kumakain ako ng kanin. “I am eating rice.”

V=Kumakain (Eating) S=ako (I) ng=object marker O=kanin (rice)

This same sentence can be written like this:

Kinakain ko ang kanin. “The rice is being eaten by me.”

V=Kinakain (is being eating) S=ko (by me) ang=(subject marker) O=kanin (rice)