Word Order
Word order in Oceanic languages is highly diverse, and is distributed in the following geographic regions (Lynch, Ross, & Crowley 2002:49).
- SVO: Admiralty Islands, most of Markham Valley, Siasi Islands, most of New Britain, New Ireland, some parts of Bougainville Island, most parts of the southeast Solomon Islands, most parts of Vanuatu, some parts of New Caledonia, most of Micronesia
- SOV: central and southeast Papua New Guinea, some parts of Markham Valley, Madang coast, Wewak coast, Sarmi coast, a few parts of Bougainville, some parts of New Britain
- VSO: New Georgia, some parts of Santa Ysabel Island, much of Polynesia, Yap
- VOS: Fijian language, Anejom language, Loyalty Islands, Kiribati, many parts of New Caledonia, Gela language
- TVX (where T = topic, V = verb, X = arguments other than topic): much of Bougainville Island, Choiseul Island, some parts of Santa Ysabel Island
Read more about this topic: Oceanic Languages
Famous quotes containing the words word and/or order:
“Let your word be Yes, Yes’ or No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 5:37.
“In order to become spoiled ... a child has to be able to want things as well as need them. He has to be able to see himself as a being who is separate from everyone else.... A baby is none of these things. He feels a need and he expresses it. He is not intellectually capable of working out involved plans and ideas like “Can I make her give me...?” “If I make enough fuss he will...?” “They let me do ... yesterday and I want to do it again today so I’ll....””
—Penelope Leach (20th century)