They say it’s SVO. English. Yeah, well…
you are there
S V O
… sounds rather stifled to me. Many many times more often would you hear
there you are
O S V
where are you? ah! there you are
here I am
O S V
One of the first books you will read as a child, starts with these two basic sentences:
I am Sam. Sam I am.
S V O O S V
When you learn the days in a month?
thirty days has September
|____O____| V S
Fixed expressions you say? Right you are… (OSV again 😉)
we can make them up say I
|---------O-------| V S
a strong shell has the tortoise. a long trunk has the elephant.
|------O-----| V |----S-----| |-----O----| V |-----S----|
sly are the foxes that come into my garden at night
C V |----------------------S------------------|
What about when talking about a family member?
always shouting at the telly my dad
Adv Verb Prep Phrase Subject
… probably doesn’t count. Parses more like [[always [shouting [at [the telly]]]] [my dad]] to me. Equivalent to the structure [[massive racist] [my dad]].
What about?
some sausages eats my brother
hmm, nope, doesn’t work. but
“cheese” says my brother
“freeze” shouts the cop
O V S
yup, that works. Now, remember that intonation you used to read that. Let write it
↑cheese ↓says my brother
now, lets retry that example from before
↑some sausages ↓eats my brother
sounds a bit better I’d say. Though… it does sound a bit like we’re going to break into song.
They say you do a subject verb inversion to make a question. You do?
are you there?
V S O
has he done the work?
V S O->
ok, but those are the boring forms. You forget the cheeky form
done the work has he?
<------O----> V S
it adds one of many different implications, depending on the tone. Maybe you know he’s not done the work. Maybe you’re suspicious he’s not done the work. Maybe you think the work has done isn’t up to scratch. So many dimensions.
The reply gives us another non SVO
done the work he has!
I think done the work has he? only works here because it’s starting with the VO verb phrase done the work. We don’t need to use has. But it does seem like we neeed a spot of do support
complete the work did he?
complete the work does he?
eat steak does he?
also, surprising to me, conjugating both verbs in this form does it for me
eats steak does he?
with no change in meaning.
The problem with dem grammar peoples what say it’s SVO is, they spend too much time reading books, and not enough listening with their eears.
Ok, ok… but English isn’t perfectly flexible, there are orders that don’t work, right?
Maybe it’s fine to say that English is SVO when reading boring text books, but I think it’s got a few tricks it can pull out at a party.
PS: don’t take any of this too seriously :)