The property Subject Object Verb has the value "yes" when the order Subject Object Verb can be used in a <a href="/glossary#neutral-context">neutral context</a>. The clause in this property is an active (non-passive) declarative (non-interrogative) clause.  In this property, the subject and object are not pronouns. As with all word order properties, we restrict our attention to <a href="/glossary#productive">productive word order</a> patterns.<br><br>


<b><a href="/glossary#subject">Definition of Subject</a></b>
<br><b><a href="/glossary#object">Definition of Object</a></b><br><!--In an active (non-passive) sentence with an action verb (e.g. "Bill pet the dog") and two noun phrase arguments, the subject is the noun phrase argument referring to the one who performs the action (agent) and the object is the other noun phrase argument.<br>--><br>

<b>General Note on Word Order Properties</b>:<br>
A "yes" value for Subject Object Verb does not exclude a "yes" value for any other order of these categories. <br><br>

<b>NA (Not Applicable)</b>: All known languages have subjects and objects in the defined sense, so this property is always defined and never has the value NA.<br><br>

Examples:<br><br>

1. <br>
Japanese is “yesâ€ for the property Subject Object Verb:<br><br>

dareka-ga         koppu-o   otosi-ta.<br>
 someone-Nom cup-Acc  drop-Past<br>
 "Someone dropped a cup."<br><br>

2.<br>
English is “noâ€ for the property Subject Object Verb since this order is always ungrammatical:<br><br>

*John the ball sees<br>
(* means ungrammatical)<br><br>

3.<br>
The following English example has an archaic flavor that excludes it from consideration:<br><br>

One term paper does not a graduate student make.<br><br>

In other words, even though the word order in this example is Subject Object Verb, we assume that this word order does not characterize modern English.
