Why does verb-object-subject (VOS) order remain relatively rare cross-linguistically despite its logical possibility?

💡 Explanation

VOS order violates the principle of head-dependent harmonic alignment, where heads (verbs) typically precede their dependents (objects/subjects); this increases processing difficulty because the expected dependency structure is disrupted. Therefore, VOS is disfavored, rather than being preferred due to statistical dependencies or parameter settings which do not fully explain distributional skew.

• Speakers of a language lacking grammatical tense markers are presented with a spatial reasoning task after learning a new, artificial category. Which consequence follows regarding their task performance?
• Why does retrieval failure occur when bilinguals attempt to recall infrequent idioms during rapid speech?
• If a cochlear implant encodes speech information using a limited number of electrodes and current levels, which consequence follows for the recipient's perception of vowels?
• A large language model generates an essay; if the model abruptly switches to discussing an unrelated subject mid-paragraph, which consequence most likely follows?
• Why does early language acquisition by deaf children exposed to inconsistent sign language input often result in unique, non-standard sign systems?
• Why does a proto-language reconstruction become less certain as the time depth increases?