by mwh » Thu Oct 31, 2013 8:03 pm
There's a formidably learned book on Latin Word Order by Devine and Stephens, but it calls for a high degree of linguistic competence and I suspect you're after something more basic. Can't really help you there but don't the standard Latin textbooks give some guidance?
In your sample sentence the "fronting" of magno gives it prominence, and since Latin is an inflected language, with cases etc. to sort out what goes with what, adjectives don't have to stand right next to their nouns. The word order is more flexible – which enables it to be more nuanced and expressive.
PS I now see adrianus' helpful post, as well as your response to that.
Thinking that words in a sentence can go wherever they want is not at all a bad way to think about Latin word order. (Some experts go so far as to describe Latin word order as "free.") That's not the same as thinking that it makes no difference where they go, which would be a big mistake: word order matters. Pulling something to the front (or alternatively deferring it to the end) can be a way of making it prominent; separating adjective from its noun (or adverb from its verb) likewise. Learn your declensions, pay close attention to case endings, and you'll do all right. (Same goes for conjugations and verb endings, needless to say!)
Good luck!
