DLAB DLAB Contextual Word Order Rules 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In fictional language X, the word order rule is Verb-Subject-Object (VSO). Given: dog=koru, bites=fela, man=tanu, how do you say 'The dog bites the man'?
- koru fela tanu
- fela koru tanu (Correct answer)
- tanu koru fela
- koru tanu fela
Correct answer: fela koru tanu
VSO order places the verb first (fela), then the subject (koru), then the object (tanu).
Question 2: A language follows Object-Verb-Subject (OVS) order. 'Mari sees Tano' (sees=velu) is correctly written as:
- Mari velu Tano
- Tano velu Mari (Correct answer)
- velu Mari Tano
- Mari Tano velu
Correct answer: Tano velu Mari
OVS order requires the object (Tano) first, then the verb (velu), then the subject (Mari).
Question 3: In an SOV language, adjectives follow the noun they modify. 'The big house' (house=domo, big=grando) is written as:
- grando domo
- domo grando (Correct answer)
- domo only
- grando only
Correct answer: domo grando
The adjective-after-noun rule places the noun (domo) first, followed by its modifier (grando).
Question 4: Language Y places the question word at the END of the sentence. 'What did you eat?' becomes:
- What you eat?
- You ate what? (Correct answer)
- Did eat you what?
- Ate you what?
Correct answer: You ate what?
The question word 'what' must appear last, so the sentence ends: 'You ate what?'
Question 5: In a fictional language, negation is marked by placing 'no' immediately AFTER the verb. 'I run fast' = 'mi koru pelu.' 'I do NOT run fast' is:
- no mi koru pelu
- mi no koru pelu
- mi koru no pelu (Correct answer)
- mi koru pelu no
Correct answer: mi koru no pelu
'No' must immediately follow the verb (koru), giving mi koru no pelu.
Question 6: A test language uses Subject-Object-Verb order with adjectives always preceding their nouns. 'The tall man sees a small cat' has which structure?
- Adj-Noun Verb Adj-Noun
- Noun-Adj Verb Noun-Adj
- Adj-Noun Adj-Noun Verb (Correct answer)
- Verb Adj-Noun Adj-Noun
Correct answer: Adj-Noun Adj-Noun Verb
SOV with pre-noun adjectives yields [tall man] [small cat] [sees], which is Adj-Noun Adj-Noun Verb.
DLAB DLAB Contextual Word Order Rules 1
In fictional language X, the word order rule is Verb-Subject-Object (VSO).
Given: dog=koru, bites=fela, man=tanu, how do you say 'The dog bites the man'?