Re: Free word order in analytical languages

Bart Mathias wrote:

Gorol wrote:
What language is this?


Hi, which grammatical means can be used to allow free word order of
actants except of rich inflection?

No inflections here; only agglutinations:

1) gogOL cekOvinE turatti
2) gogOL turatti cekOvinE
3) cekOvinE gogOL turatti
4) cekOvinE turatti gogOL
5) turatti gogOL cekOvinE
6) turatti cekOvinE gogoL

Translated into English,

1) Gogol chased Chekov.
2) Gogol (was the one who) chased Chekov.
3) Chekov (was the one who) was chased by Gogol.
4) Chasing was what Gogol did to Chekov.
5) Chase Chekov did Gogol (or "Boy, did Gogol chase Chekov or what?").
6) while comprehensible, this order is never used; it would be considered
a odd/clumsy way to express #5.

Are those free word order? It seems from your examples that the word
order strictly denotes the meaning.

They are not strict meanings; they are nuances which come out exaggerated
when translated. For strict meanings 2-5, the sentences would have to be
longer.

Free word order to me sounds more like
1) bokuga soreo sita
2) soreo bokuga sita
3) bokuga sita soreo

All of them mean "I (am the one who) did that" in Japanese, but even so
there are nuances.

Bart Mathias

.

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