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The below table indicates the distribution of the dominant word order pattern of over 5,000 individual languages and 366 language families. SOV is the most common type in both although much more clearly in the data of language families including isolates. 'NODOM' represents languages without a single dominant order.
| Type | Languages | % | Families | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOV | 2,275 | 43,3% | 239 | 65.3% |
| SVO | 2,117 | 40.3% | 55 | 15% |
| VSO | 503 | 9.5% | 27 | 7.4% |
| VOS | 174 | 3.3% | 15 | 4.1% |
| NODOM | 124 | 2.3% | 26 | 7.1% |
| OVS | 40 | 0.7% | 3 | 0.8% |
| OSV | 19 | 0.3% | 1 | 0.3% |
Though the reason of dominance is sometimes considered an unsolved or unsolvable typological problem, several explanations for the distribution pattern have been proposed. Evolutionary explanations include those by Thomas Givon (1979), who suggests that all languages stem from an SOV language but are evolving into different kinds; and by Derek Bickerton (1981), who argues that the original language was SVO, which supports simpler grammar employing word order instead of case markers to differentiate between clausal roles.
Universalist explanations include a model by Russell Tomlinson (1986) based on three functional principles: (i) animate before inanimate; (ii) theme before comment; and (iii) verb-object bonding. John A. Hawkins (1994) suggests that constituents are ordered from shortest to longest in VO languages, and from longest to shortest in OV languages, giving rise to the attested distribution.
- Hammarström, Harald (2016). "Linguistic diversity and language evolution". Journal of Language Evolution. 1 (1): 19–29. doi:10.1093/jole/lzw002. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- Song, Jae Jung (2012). Word Order. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139033930.
- Song, Jae Jung (2012). Word Order. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139033930.