page_title: Tagalog grammar
section_title: Word order
hierarchical_section_title: Tagalog grammar / Word order
caption_attribution_description: English: (13a) Syntax tree, adapted from Sabbagh (2014), 70 (55), made with http://mshang.ca/syntree/
context_page_description: Tagalog grammar is the body of rules that describe the structure of expressions in the Tagalog language, the language of the Tagalog region of the Philippines.
  In Tagalog, there are nine basic parts of speech: verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, ligatures and particles. Tagalog is a slightly inflected language. Pronouns are inflected for number; and verbs, for focus, aspect and voice.
context_section_description: Tagalog has a flexible word order compared to English. While the verb always remains in initial position, the order of noun phrase complements that follow is flexible. An example provided by Schacter and Otanes can be seen in (1).
  The flexibility of Tagalog word order can be seen in (2). There are six different ways of saying 'The man gave the woman a book.' in Tagalog. The following five sentences, along with the sentence from (1), include the same grammatical components and are all grammatical and identical in meaning but have different orders.
  The principles in (3) help to determine the ordering of possible noun phrase complements. In a basic clause where the patient takes the nominative case, principles (i) and (ii) requires the actor to precede the patient. In example (4a), the patient, 'liham' (letter) takes the nominative case and satisfies principles (i) and (ii). The example in (4b) shows that the opposite ordering of the agent and patient does not result in an ungrammatical sentence but rather an unnatural one in Tagalog.
  
  
   
   
   
  In example (5), the verb, 'binihag', (captivated) is marked for active voice and results in the actor ('Kuya Louis') to take the nominative case. Example (5) doesn't satisfy principles (i) and (ii). That is, principle (i) requires the Actor ('Kuya Louis') to precede all other arguments. However, since the Actor also takes the nominative case, principle (ii) requires the phrase 'Kuya Louis' to come last. The preferred order of agent and patient in Tagalog active clauses is still being debated. Therefore, we can assume that there are two "unmarked" word orders: VSO or VOS.
  A change in word order and trigger generally corresponds to a change in definiteness ("the" vs "a") in English. Example (6) shows a change in word order, triggered by the indirect, "ng." Example (7) shows a change in word order, triggered by the direct, "ang."
  
  
   
   
   
  Word order may be inverted (referred to in Tagalog grammar as Kabalikang Anyo) by way of the inversion marker 'ay ' ( ’y after vowels in informal speech, not usually used in writing).  Contrary to popular belief, this is not the copula 'to be' as 'ay' does not behave as an existential marker in an SVO structure and an inverted form VSO does not require 'ay' since the existentiality is denoted by case marking.  A slight, but optional, pause in speech or a comma in writing may replace the inversion marker.  This construction is often viewed by native speakers as formal or literary.
  In this construction (ay-inverson), the 'ay' appears between the fronted constituent and the remainder of the clause. The fronted constituent in the construction includes locations and adverbs. Example (8)- (11) shows the inverted form of the sentences in previous examples above.
  In (8), and (11), the fronted constituent is the subject. On the other hand, in (9), the fronted constituent is the object. Another example of a fronted constituent in Tagalog is, wh-phrases. Wh-phrases include interrogative questions that begin with: who, what, where, when, why and how. In Tagalog, wh-phrases occur to the left of the clause. For example, in the sentence, 'Who are you?', which translates to, 'Sino ka?' occurs to the left of the clause. The syntactic tree of this sentence is found in (12a). As we can see in (12a), the complementizer position is null. However, in the case where an overt complementizer is present, Sabbagh (2014) proposes that the wh-phrase lowers from Spec, CP  and adjoins to TP when C is overt (12b). The operation in (12b) is known as, WhP lowering.
  
  
   
   
   
  This operation of lowering can also be applied in sentences to account for the verb-initial word order in Tagalog. The subject-lowering analysis states that, "the subject lowers from Spec, TP and adjoins to a projection dominated by TP.". If we use the example from (2), 
  Nagbigay ang lalaki ng libro sa babae. and applied subject lowering, we would see the syntax tree in (13a).If we lowered the subject, ang lalaki, to an intermediate position within VP, we would be able to achieve a VOS word order and still satisfy subje
caption: (13a) Syntax tree, adapted from Sabbagh (2014), 70 (55), made with http://mshang.ca/syntree/
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