|
Word order in Serbian declarative sentences
| The basic
word order in declarative sentences is like in
English |
Optional element -
Subject-Verb-Object - Optional elements:
Example:
| 1. |
Danas, Jovan piše
knjigu o Beogradu.
'Today, Jovan writes book about Belgrade.'
‘Today, Jovan is writing a book about
Belgrade.’ |
In the above example, words ‘danas’ and ‘o Beogradu’
are optional elements. ‘Jovan’ is the subject, ‘piše’ is the
verb and ‘knjigu’ is the object.
If the subject
of the sentence is a personal pronoun:
ja ‘I’,
ti ‘you’,
on ‘he’, etc., we
usually omit the pronoun, so the word order becomes:
Optional element -
Verb-Object - Optional elements:
Example:
| 2. |
Danas pišem knjigu.
‘Today, (I) write a book.’ |
|
| 3. |
Danas pišemo
knjigu.
‘Today, (we) write a book.’ |
|
| 4. |
Pisao je knjigu
danas.
‘(He) wrote a book today.’ |
|
The reason why Serbian (as well as many other Slavic
and Romance languages) allows the subject pronoun to be
omitted is because the suffixes on the verb, called the
inflection, tell us the information about the subject:
whether it is the first, second or third person, or whether
it is singular or plural, and whether the subject is male or
female or neuter.
For example, in sentence 2
above, the suffix –em on
the verb
pišem tells us that the subject is the first person
singular, ja ‘I’.
In sentence 3, the suffix –emo
on the verb pišemo tells us that the subject is the first
person plural, mi ‘we’.
Note that the
present tense verb forms in examples 2 and
3, do not show gender of the subject. Why?
Only
past tense
verb forms, like in sentence 4, show the gender. In 4. the
past participle suffix –o
of
pisao (wrote-he), tells
us that the subject of the sentence is a third person,
singular and also masculine (on
‘he’).
If the verb is
intransitive (doesn’t have an object), the basic
order is subject-verb (example 5) or just the verb,
when the subject is an understood pronoun (example 6):
| 5. |
Jovan šeta.
‘Jovan walks.’ |
|
| 6. |
Šetaš.
‘(You) walk.’ |
|
To summarize, as the result of rich inflections on the
verb, the pronominal (=pronoun) subjects can be omitted and
the order of words is rather free.
| Neutral vs.
non-neutral word order |
The word order: subject-verb-object is called the neutral
or basic word order. However, for the purposes of emphasis
or contrast, we can easily permute this basic order. This is
usually done for purposes of emphasis:
| 7. |
Knjigu pišem ja.
'Book write I.'
“It is I who is writing a book.” |
|
| 8. |
Milana niko ne
voli.
'Milan nobody not like.'
'Milan, nobody likes.' |
|
To summarize:
- The key here is to remember that the basic word
order is just like in English: subject-verb-object.
- But unlike English, the subject pronouns in Serbian
can be omitted. As a result, the verb can appear first
in the sentence (as in the examples 2-4 above).
- Also, unlike English, we can pretty much scramble
everything in the sentence, except for the unaccented
words, which we call ‘clitics’.
| Word order in
complex declarative sentences |
So far, we have been looking at the word order in a
single declarative sentence. What is the word order in
complex sentences, i.e., sentences that contain more than
one embedded or subordinate clauses?
We will
begin with verbs and nouns that take sentences as their
complements. If this terminology is too abstract, just
ignore it. Let’s look at the concrete example.
| i) |
verb + da +
subordinate sentence: |
|
| 9. |
Nevena zna [da
Jovan dolazi kući.]
'Nevena knows [that Jovan is coming home.]' |
|
| iI) |
noun + da +
subordinate sentence: |
|
| 10. |
Nevena je čula vest
[da Jovan nije došao kući .]
'Nevena has heard the news [that Jovan didn’t
come home.]' |
|
In 9 and 10, the subordinate sentences are enclosed in
brackets for your convenience. In the first example, we have
the verb
zna ‘knows’
followed by da (that) + subject + present
verb + noun. In the second example, we have the noun
vest ‘news’ followed by
da + subject + past tense verb + noun.
So,
the word order of subordinate clauses is very similar to
that of English:
‘da’ (that)
+ Sentence
(where the Sentence = subject + verb
(present or past) + object, other elements)
However, there are certain verbs that express hypothetical
actions (wishes, wants, demands) that only take the present
tense verbs in subordinate clauses:
| 11. |
Hoću [da Marija uči
srpski.]
'I want that Marija study Serbian.' |
|
In English, this corresponds to so-called subjunctive
clauses, where the verb is in its base form (‘study’ not
‘studied’ or ‘studies’ in 11). Note that in 11, the verb
uči ‘study’ is in the present tense. So,
in English you cannot say: *I want that Marija studies
Serbian, but in Serbian, you can! In addition to ‘da’
(that) as a subordinate sentence introducer, Serbian
also uses ‘što’ (that/what).
This particle occurs with verbs expressing emotional
reaction: Here is an example:
| 12. |
Tužni smo [što
Marija odlazi.]
'We are sad [that Marija is leaving.]' |
|
In such sentences, da
‘that’ is also permitted (as in 13), so you can use
either
da
or što.
| 13. |
Tužni smo [da
Marija odlazi.]
'We are sad [that Marija is leaving.]' |
|
| Infinitive
verbs in subordinate clauses |
Serbian doesn’t prefer infinitives in subordinate
clauses, as is the case in English and also Croatian. But
when we use it, the subject of the main sentence is the same
as the subject of the infinitival sentence: Here are two
examples:
| 14. |
Marko može
[govoriti srpski.]
'Marko can speak Serbian.' |
|
| 15. |
Marija želi
[telefonirati.]
'Marija wants to telephone.' |
|
Of course, instead of infinitive sentence (designated
in brackets), one can equally use
da + present tense:
| 16. |
Džon može [da
govori srpski.]
'John can that speaks Serbian.'
'John can speak Serbian.' |
|
| 17. |
Marija želi [da
telefonira.]
'Marija wants that (she) telephones.'
'Marija wants to telephone.' |
|
And this is how we would actually use these sentences.
so, remember than Serbian doesn’t like infinitive
subordinate sentences, so try to use: da + verb in the
present tense, as in 16-17.
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