Let us turn to word order in IE languages, or more spesifically to
modern germanic languages: Let me sketch out the rules for word order
in modern Norwegian as an example. The rules are different in
affirmative and interrogative aentences:
Affirmative:
1. This is a free place, her you can place anything. Most often the
subject is placed here, but that is no rule. Even the object may have
this place, as long as this does not cause ambiguities about what is
subject or object.
2. Finit verb (main or auxiliary)
3. Subject, if it is not allready at the first position
4. Participles or infinitives
5. Indirect object, if not allready at the first position
6. Direct Object, if not allready at the first position
7. Adverbials with or without preposition, if not allready at the
first position
Interrogative:
1. Finit verb (If the sentence contains an auxiliary, this is the
finite verb)
2. Subject, if it is not allready at the first position
3. Participles or infinitives
4. Indirect object, if not allready at the first position
5. Direct Object, if not allready at the first position
6. Adverbials with or without preposition, if not allready at the
first position
The sentence "I bought the car yesterdy" can according to these rules
have the following variants. Jeg kjøpte bilen igår. Bilen kjøpte jeg
igår. Igår kjøpte jeg bilen. (Jeg=I, kjøpte=bought, igår=yesterday,
bilen=the car)
These rules are not very different from the rules in other germanic
languages.
The question is, how old are these rules. I thing they may originate
in a svo/vso-preference that at least go back to protogermanic, or
perhaps even further back in time.
>
> Danish has a three way split:
> Han kører en bil : He is driving a car
> Han kører bilen : He is driving the car
> Han kører bil : He is driving-car, ie. the focus is on the act
of
> car-driving. German and the other Scanidivian languages have the
> same range.
>
> Torsten