FROM SOV TO SVO: A COMPLETE BREAKDOWN IN LAW AND ORDER?

Abstract

The present article attempts to shed light on the external and internal influences behind the shift of synthetic SOV towards analytic SVO word order pattern. Furthermore, it also discusses a variety of reasons why SOV remained around for so long well into the Middle and Early New English periods. There is a general consensus that the right-branching SVO word order is universally preferred over an SOV order. The shift from a SOV to an SVO word order, which is basically the change from a verb-final word order towards a word order in which the verb is placed in the medial position, is one of the most elaborate and striking in the history of Indo-European languages with English being one of them. The SOV word order stayed around for centuries in English mainly because of the strong Latin and Christian influence. When England was converted by the Romans, not only was the new religion introduced but also the Bible and, of course, Latin. In the years that followed, many churches, monasteries, and scriptoria were built across the country where monks, priests, and scribes were educated to read and write in Latin in order to be able to preach Christianity together with the Roman missionaries. So, the sole language of the Church became Latin which was unknown to almost 99% of the population of England.