A Comparative Analysis of the Roles of Subject and Object in Verb Structure in English and Pashto

چکیده

This study investigates the effects of subject and object relations on verb structure in English and Pashto, two genetically related Indo-European languages that exhibit significant typological divergence. While English follows a nominative–accusative alignment characterized by subject prominence and syntactic regulation, verb agreement is limited to the subject’s person and number. In contrast, Pashto demonstrates a split-ergative system with rich morphological marking, in which verbs agree with the subject in the present tense and with the object in transitive constructions in the past tense. Using a comparative analytical approach, this study examines patterns of verb agreement, word order variation, and case marking across the two languages. The analysis reveals that English relies on a relatively fixed SVO word order and minimal inflectional morphology to encode grammatical relationships. In contrast, Pashto exhibits a more flexible SOV-based word order, supported by extensive verb morphology and case marking, which together maintain clarity of grammatical roles despite syntactic variation. These findings highlight fundamental differences in how the two languages encode grammatical meaning, reflecting broader typological distinctions. The study contributes to theoretical linguistics by clarifying the interaction between alignment systems and verb agreement, and it also offers practical implications for second language pedagogy, bilingual acquisition, and translation studies. In particular, the typological differences identified may facilitate or hinder language learning, especially for Pashto speakers acquiring English or vice versa within the Afghan context. Understanding these structural contrasts is therefore essential for improving cross-linguistic comprehension, teaching strategies, and translation accuracy.