The typology of VSO (verb-subject-object) languages cannot be explained in terms of the syntactic theory (Government and Binding theory) that governs the more common SVO languages. It is considered that VSO languages might be derived from underlying SVO structure. This idea, known as the SVO Hypothesis, is presented as a paradigm to which examples of two VSO languages are applied: Welsh and Breton. The evidence that makes the SVO Hypothesis inapplicable to Welsh is the language's obligatory fronting of the auxiliary verb over the main verb and the automatic groupings of proper constituents of verb-fronted structures (VPs) that lack a verb. The SVO Hypothesis cannot be applied to Breton since its main verbs move left of the subjects even when an inflected auxiliary verb is present; its main verbs are positioned separately from the direct objects; and its copula verbs play the role of the auxiliary verbs by moving to the left of the main verb which is always left of the subject. The syntactic theory proposed in the SVO Hypothesis presents richly detailed observations about the behavior of syntactic constituents but continues to have difficulty in applying these behaviors to VSO languages. (TR)