4.2 English word order
Let’s take a generic sentence and compare how languages differ in their structures.
The sentence example: ‘The penguin walked over the bridge’.
In English, we would say exactly that: ‘The penguin walked over the bridge’. This is word order in English: Subject, Verb, Object.
Looking at the same sentence in a little bit more detail:
In this sentence ‘A’ and ‘The’ are articles. They illustrate what type of noun they are. Using this sentence as an example, ‘a’ is before the word ‘penguin’ to show that it would be any penguin walking over the bridge. The word ‘The’ being used before the word ‘bridge’ shows that it is a particular bridge: the definite article.
Looking at the word ‘walked’, placing the suffix ‘-ed’ at the end of a verb signifies that it is in the past tense.
By looking at the structure of this sentence at a high level, we can see how complex the English language can be and how every part of the sentence informs the meaning.
4.1 How does BSL differ?