word order

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spqr
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word order

Post by spqr »

D'ooge says the middle words in a sentence stand in the order of importance. Does he mean going from least important to most important or vice versa? Thanks.

Aulus
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Re: word order

Post by Aulus »

It's been sometimes observed that statistically, in a sentence, new information to the listener tends to come later than old information (but this can be easily contested: things can be moved to the beginning and be given emphasis in many languages: e.g. English "I didn't see your brother there, it was your sister who was there!"). I suppose D'Ooge may be equating being new to the listener with being "important"?

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