Swap distance minimization shapes the order of subject, object and verb in languages of the world
Languages of the world vary concerning the order of subject (S), object (O) and verb (V). The most frequent dominant orders are SOV and SVO, and researchers have tailored models to this fact. However, there are still languages whose dominant order does not conform to these expectations or even lack a dominant order. Here we approach word order variation through swap distance, namely the distance between orders in the permutohedron, a graph where the vertices are the six possible orders of S, O and V, and two orders are connected if they differ by a swap of adjacent constituents. Then word order variation becomes a problem of assigning probabilities to word orders so as to minimize the ave...
| Authors | Jairo Rios-El-Yazidi, Ramon Ferrer-i-Cancho |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.CL |
| Published | 29 April 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 27 July 2026 |
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