I. SV pattern of Chinese

(1) hsiao hai shui jiao

child sleep

`The child sleeps.’

(2) hsiao hai ku

child cry

`The child will cry.’

(3) xiaogou you yong

Dog swim

`The dog swims.’

(4) wo shui jiao

I sleep

`I sleep.’

The verb form doesn’t change at all even the Subject changes.

There is no other word order grammatical than (1) among hsiao hai and shui jiao. The sequence of the words (5) is not a sentence.

(5) * shui jiao hsiao hai.

Sleeps child