Objective Word Order
A sentence usually begins with facts which are already known from a preceding sentence or context (theme). New and important facts (rheme) are usually placed in the final position. Compare:
- Včera zemřel známý herec. – A famous actor died yesterday. (An announcement of a death of a person – who died?)
- (Yesterday died (V) famous actor (S).)
- (Ten) známý herec zemřel včera. – The famous actor died yesterday. (When did he die?)
- ((The) famous actor (S) died (V) yesterday.)
- Byl jednou jeden král a ten král měl tři dcery. – Once upon a time there lived a king and the king had three daughters.
- (Was (V) once one king (S) and the king (S) had (V) three daughters (O).)
Read more about this topic: Czech Word Order
Famous quotes containing the words objective, word and/or order:
“Reason is a faculty far larger than mere objective force. When either the political or the scientific discourse announces itself as the voice of reason, it is playing God, and should be spanked and stood in the corner.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929)
“There is no word for time.
Today we will
not think to number another summer
or watch its white bird into the ground.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“When I behold a rich landscape, it is less to my purpose to recite correctly the order and superposition of the strata, than to know why all thought of multitude is lost in a tranquil sense of unity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)