What is "Sino-Japanese word order"?


In the answer to the thread [What's the difference between 腹切{はらき}り and
切腹{せっぷく}?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/3534/whats-the-
difference-between-%E8%85%B9%E5%88%87%E3%82%8A-and-%E5%88%87%E8%85%B9) in the
1st paragraph, 2nd line, the author mentions " _Sino-Japanese pronunciation
and word order_ ".

I assume that " _Sino-Japanese pronunciation_ " is 音読{おんよ}み。

So, what is " _Sino-Japanese word order_ "?




In this case, it's verb-object, like the Chinese these morphemes were borrowed
from, rather than object-verb, like native Japanese syntax:

> 切腹 （せっぷく） ＝ 切（せつ） (verbal morpheme) + 腹 （ふく） (object morpheme)  
>  腹切り（はらきり） ＝ 腹（はら） (object morpheme) + 切り（きり） (verbal morpheme)

Generally, the morphemes in Sino-Japanese compounds (called 漢語【かんご】 in
Japanese) follow Chinese word order, even if those words were coined in
Japanese rather than borrowed directly from Chinese.

Native Japanese compounds usually follow Japanese word order, except without
particles:

> 腹 **を** 切 **る** (verb phrase) → 腹切 **り** (deverbal compound)

We can find other pairs like this, for example:

> 殺人 （さつじん） ＝ 殺（さつ） (verbal morpheme) + 人 （じん） (object morpheme)  
>  人殺し（ひとごろし） ＝ 人（ひと） (object morpheme) + 殺し（ころし） (verbal morpheme)

And we can break down the latter like this:

> 人 **を** 殺 **す** (verb phrase) → 人殺 **し** (deverbal compound)

In fact, you can often "take apart" a Sino-Japanese compound by turning it
around, switching to native Japanese readings (訓読み) and inserting the
appropriate particles and such. If we use our example of 殺人 again:

> 殺人【さつじん】 → 人【ひと】 **を** 殺【ころ】 **すこと** 。

We just came up with [the dictionary definition of
殺人](http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E6%AE%BA%E4%BA%BA) without actually looking
it up.




In this case, it's verb-object, like the Chinese these morphemes were borrowed
from, rather than object-verb, like native Japanese syntax:

> 切腹 （せっぷく） ＝ 切（せつ） (verbal morpheme) + 腹 （ふく） (object morpheme)  
>  腹切り（はらきり） ＝ 腹（はら） (object morpheme) + 切り（きり） (verbal morpheme)

Generally, the morphemes in Sino-Japanese compounds (called 漢語【かんご】 in
Japanese) follow Chinese word order, even if those words were coined in
Japanese rather than borrowed directly from Chinese.

Native Japanese compounds usually follow Japanese word order, except without
particles:

> 腹 **を** 切 **る** (verb phrase) → 腹切 **り** (deverbal compound)

We can find other pairs like this, for example:

> 殺人 （さつじん） ＝ 殺（さつ） (verbal morpheme) + 人 （じん） (object morpheme)  
>  人殺し（ひとごろし） ＝ 人（ひと） (object morpheme) + 殺し（ころし） (verbal morpheme)

And we can break down the latter like this:

> 人 **を** 殺 **す** (verb phrase) → 人殺 **し** (deverbal compound)

In fact, you can often "take apart" a Sino-Japanese compound by turning it
around, switching to native Japanese readings (訓読み) and inserting the
appropriate particles and such. If we use our example of 殺人 again:

> 殺人【さつじん】 → 人【ひと】 **を** 殺【ころ】 **すこと** 。

We just came up with [the dictionary definition of
殺人](http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E6%AE%BA%E4%BA%BA) without actually looking
it up.

