Word order 

refers to the conventional arrangement of words in a phrase, clause,

or sentence. The words in an English sentence are arranged in a certain word order
which is fixed for every type of sentence and is, therefore, meaningful. There exist
two ways of arranging words-direct order and inverted order.
The most common pattern for the arrangement of the main parts in a declarative
sentence is Subject - Predicate - (Object), which is called direct word order. Direct
word order is also employed in pronominal questions to the subject or to its attribute.

Direct word order allows of only few variations in the fixed pattern, and then only for
the secondary parts. Thus if there are two objects, the indirect one precedes the direct
one, or the prepositional follows the direct one. Thus the pattern has the following
forms:

 Subject - Predicate - Indirect object - Direct object

 Subject - Predicate - Direct object - Prepositional object

The boy gave me an apple. - (S+P+Ind.Object+D.Object)

The boy gave an apple to me. – (S+P+D.Object+Prep.Object)

As to other secondary parts of the sentence, such as attributes and adverbial modifiers,
their position is less fixed. Usually those words that are closely connected tend to be
placed together. Accordingly secondary parts referring to their headwords are placed
close to them, or are incorporated into, or else frame them up. Thus attributes either
premodify or postmodify or frame up their headwords: a bright morning, the problems
involved, the scene familiar to us, the happiest man alive, the best skier in the world.
Adverbials and different form words seem to be the most movable parts in the
sentence. Their mobility is partly accounted for by their varied reference to different
parts of the sentence [1, p.277].

In inflected languages the relations between words are expressed by grammatical

morphemes. It’s the communicative principle that plays a leading role in determining
the order of words. It’s common practice to arrange sentence elements in theme-
rheme sequence (from the given information to the new one). However, sometimes
it’s necessary to intensify this or that part of the sentence. There are two emphatic
positions in the sentence: final and initial. So speakers in inflected languages place
communicatively the most prominent part either in the final or in the initial position
[2, p.241]. But this can’t be applied to English. In analytical languages, such as
English, the grammatical principle comes to the fore. Most of English grammar is
taken up with the rules governing the order in which sentence elements can appear.
The importance of this domain can be seen from the following set of examples, where
the meaning of the sentence alters fundamentally once the order varies:

Dog chases postman. / Postman chases dog.

They are outside. / Are the outside?
Only I saw Mary. / I saw only Mary.
The man with a dog saw me. / The men saw me with a dog. [2, p.241]
English words lost their many morphological inflections and it means that they can’t
show any syntactic relations. That’s why the main means of expressing syntactic
relations in English is the order of words.

Another common pattern of word order is the inverted one or just inversion.
It happens when we reverse (invert) the normal word order of a structure, most
commonly the subject-verb word order.

There are two types of inversion:

1) Full inversion: subject-verb inversion (the whole predicate is placed before the
subject)-Brightly shone the sun that day.

2) Partial inversion: subject-operator/auxiliary inversion (only part of the predicate

precedes the subject) – пример

*Double inversion (when parts of the predicate are placed separately before the
subject: hanging on the wall was a picture)-is distinguished by some
grammarians [1, p.280]

In some cases inversion may be taken as a normal word order in constructions with
special communicative value. Inversion occurs as a standard and performs purely
grammatical function in:
1) General questions, tag questions, polite requests: Are you interested in dancing?
Won’t you have a cup of coffee?

2) Pronominal questions (except questions to subject and its attribute): What am I

going to do without them?

3) Exclamatory sentences which express wish, despair etc.: Come what may!

Inversion is used as a grammatical means of subordination in complex sentences

joined without connectors:
a) conditional clauses: Had she not known it before, she would have made a mistake.
b) concessive clauses: Stupid as it sounds, I fell in love with her from the first sight.

It is also used in stage directions, although this use is limited to certain verbs: Enter
Lady Brown. In all other cases the use of inversion will be optional. Its purpose is to
alter emphasis within the sentence [1, p.280-281]

Word order performs grammatical, communicative, emphatic and linking function.

Grammatical function is a very important grammatical means so as it expresses

syntactical relations between words in a sentence.

It helps to:
1) Distinguish between declarative and interrogative sentences: They are here.-
Are they here?
2) Differentiate syntactic relations: a) between subject and object: Mike loves
Mary b) between indirect and direct object: I will show you the garden.
3) Express attributive connection- attribute vs adverbial of place: People here rise
early (attribute). – People rise early here (adverbial of place).

Communicative function manifests itself in that the sentence position of an

element varies depending on its communicative value [2, p.241]. It is related to:
distinguishing between the Theme (front position) and the Rheme (final position-
the so called end-focus: the new or most important idea in a piece of information
should be placed towards the end, where in speech nuclear stress normally falls-
Tonight, on the open fire, she is cooking pork chops, corn and sausages),
connecting sentences in a text.

Emphatic function-subjective word order (the new precedes the given): Very
confused (the fronted subject complement-Rheme) he looked.

Means of indicating the Theme and the Rheme:

1) Thematic: the definite article, loose parenthesis, detached parts of the sentence

2) Rhematic: the indefinite article, particles (even, only…), negations, cleft

sentences, emphatic constructions, special structures which make the subject
rhematic (there is; it is necessary)

The linking function of word order is to express continuity of thought in sentences

(or clauses) following one another. This continuity is often supported by
demonstrative pronouns and adverbs.

Examples:
1. Some people looked down on him. Those people he despised.
2.They must sow their wild oats. Such was his theory.
3.Women are terribly vain. So are men - more so, if possible.

Similarly, for purposes of enumeration, a word (or words) marking continuity is

sometimes placed at the beginning of the sentence, with the verb immediately
following: Next comes the most amusing scene [1, 282].

Reference:
1)N. Kobrina. An English Grammar: Syntax. M., 1999; pp. 277-282.
2)Прибыток И.И. Теоретическая грамматика английского языка = Theory of
English Grammar. – М.: «Академия», 2008. – c. 239-248.