Purposefully Vague

If you were to take the time and think back to Yoda’s first introduction, you might recall a slight confusion when listening to Yoda form his sentences as the wise, powerful Star Wars character. Perhaps, you even found it silly or, in some cases, as though the sentences were downright incorrect. I fondly remember childhood me thinking it was odd and humorous. My father couldn’t explain why he spoke that way, yet his enthusiasm for Star Wars helped the oddity quickly became an element of life that simply was. My curiosity was never quite put to rest until an advanced English course in college. I’ll warn you now; this post becomes grammatically nerdy pretty quickly.

It should be known that George Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan, and Frank Oz, who were all involved in creating Yoda’s speech patterns, were exceptionally knowledgeable in the realm of English rules. In fact, all of his sentences are correct according to English grammar rules. One could say his speech was written to be purposefully vague. Rather than taking my word for it, read on and see how the sentences were created.

Since language is built out of words, words set within specific parameters form patterns known to us as sentences, which are then used to create phrases. The most overarching idea in a sentence is the Subject and the Predicate. In this expose, we will look at how the English rules were used to create Yoda’s speech. Let us begin with a simple sentence: The Clone Wars have begun. The English sentence is a simple Subject Predicate sentence with Clone Wars as the subject, and the verb begin conjugated into the present-perfect creating Have + Begin + en. When this sentence is put into Yoda’s speech, it is phased as follows: Begun, the Clone Wars have. The pattern is changed from a subject-verb sentence (SV) to a verb-subject-verb sentence (VSV).

In a typical modern English sentence, the auxiliary have would appear before the other verb(s) in the sentence. However, Yoda’s speech tends to separate the auxiliaries and modals from the verb. One will commonly find verbs at the start of his sentences and modals or auxiliaries at the end of the sentences. Two such examples are as follows: Found someone, you have; Consume you, it will. Both sentences also include a direct object (O), someone, and you. If we were to remove the direct object’s addition, which creates a VOSV pattern, we would be left with the original VSV pattern.

Since the Direct Object has been brought into the conversation, it is worth noting, the direct object always precedes the subject in Yoda’s speech and always follows the verb in the typical English pattern. For example, look at the next three sentences. Save you, it can. Agree with you, the council does. Lost a planet Master Obi-Wan has. Let’s take a moment to break down each of the sentences. In the first example: Save you, it can. The pattern follows a sequence of VOSV; we will tackle this first. The equivalent English arrangement would be SVO: It can save you. In the modern English model, the sentence parts are broken down as such. The word it is identified as the Subject; can is the Modal acting in conjunction with the Verb save to create the Verb Phrase, while you in this sentence is the Direct Object.

The next sentence follows the same pattern, SVO. The council does agree with you would be the modern English arrangement. When changing the common pattern to Yoda’s model, the dummy auxiliary Do, in the present tense, is left ending the sentence following the subject council with its determiner the. The main verb Agree is then moved along with the object with you to the front of the sentence. These changes result in Yoda’s speech: Agree with you, the council does, which is a VOSV patterned sentence.

The last example follows, to the letter, the pattern of the previous two. The statement: Master Obi-Wan has lost a planet becomes Lost a planet Master Obi-Wan has. This adjustment is made by moving the principal verb to lose, which appears in the past tense, to the sentence's beginning. The object, a planet, follows suit with the verb. We have taken three SVO sentences and transformed them into VOSV pattern sentences.

Now that we have established a relatively basic understanding of the sentence structures, let us look at four variations with more complexity. Skywalker will be your apprentice. I fear grave danger in his training. I will teach you nothing more today. We can see through you. These four sentences are all similar in nature, but small pieces change the pattern in each example. In the first sentence, we find a noun, modal, verb, indirect object, and a direct object; this creates the arrangement of SVOO. To change the sentence pattern for Yoda’s speech, we will move the 2nd person singular possessive determiner your, which we will label as the indirect object (IO), and the noun apprentice earlier marked as the direct object (DO) to the front of the sentence. The noun, Skywalker, is the subject of our sentence, which will remain in place with the modal will, and the auxiliary be acting as our main verb. The resulting sentence pattern is OOSV: Your apprentice Skywalker will be.

Woah, scratching your head? It get's way more interesting!

Let's look at the difference in the next sentence by putting it side by side with the first. Skywalker will be your apprentice, and I fear grave danger in his training. Both have a subject and predicate, they both have a verb and a direct object in the predicate, but the second sentence has an adverbial: in his training. The sentence patterns would then be as follows: SVOO and SVOA. In both examples, the direct object is placed before the subject while the verb follows after the subject. However, the second example places the adverbial after the verb. Yoda’s second sentence would then look as such, Grave danger, I fear in his training (OSVA). The direct object is found at the front of the sentence following an intensifier, grave.

It is typical in Yoda’s speech for the objects to appear before the subject, ie. OSV, OOSV, or OSVA. However, the next example is an outlier in that it’s pattern is OVSVOA. Let’s take a closer look. The English sentence is: I will teach you nothing more today. The design is SVOOA. The sentence is broken down into the subject I, the modal will, and the main verb is teach. The 2nd person singular objective you, is utilized as the indirect object, and nothing, which is a negator, is used with an indefinite determiner more to hold a place as the direct object. All of this is followed by the adverbial today. Here’s where it gets fun! To transform the sentence into Yoda’s pattern, we move the Direct object to the front, followed by the Modal; the Subject, Verb, Indirect Object, and Adverbial remain in place. This creates the pattern OVSVOA.

The last sentence is a bit out of place from the rest. Its pattern is a VASV. The sentence starts as We can see through you, an SVA sequence, but ends as See through you, we can, a VASV. In this sentence, the prepositional phrase through you acts as an adverbial phrase describing how they are seeing. The adverbial is moved to the front of the sentence along with the main verb see. The subject and the modal auxiliary remain in their place.

Are you catching on? Take a breath, in slowly, and out slowly. Okay, let's take a look at a few more sequences.

Thus far, we have broken down sentences with a subject, verb, indirect object, direct object, and an adverbial phrase. One more sentence pattern is formatted two ways in Yoda’s speech, that is SVC. The Subject, Verb, Complement sentences appear as CSV and CVS. There is, however, one case in which the formating is CVS CVSC. Let’s look at a few examples. In the following sequences, we find examples of typical English SVC’s patterns. You are so certain. We are luminous beings. The mind of a child is truly wonderful. They are the dark side. These sentences are found in Yoda’s speech in two patterns. The first two sentences as CVS sentences: So certain are you, and Luminous beings are we. The last two appear as CSV patterned sentences: Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is, and The dark side they are.

There are a few outliers, but we will look at only one: You are ready? What do you know of being ready? This sentence is CVS CVSC. Ready, are you? What know you of ready? There are two important details to note. First, they remove the dummy auxiliary Do. Second, they also have removed the auxiliary verb be. Aside from omitting auxiliaries, the rest is akin to previous examples. The complement is moved to the front, followed by the verb.

It is safe to assume; the verb is flexible, moving about freely in the sentences. However, the object tends to move to the front of sentences, always before subjects and typically fronting the verb. The adverbial is generally found at the end of the sentence for both the modern English pattern and Yoda’s pattern. The complement typically fronts both the subject and the verb in Yoda’s speech arrangement. Whereas in modern English, it would commonly be found at the end of the sentence.

Thus dear reader, we have understood how Yoda's speech was created. I do hope you enjoyed geeking out about English with me. Thank you for taking the time to read!