What are the rules for word order?

[Hally04]

I keep hearing that the subject comes first, and yet I see sentences like this:

 

你的长相我很喜欢，why not 我很喜欢你的长相?

今天我要去看京剧，why not 我今天要去看京剧？ I thought that the time had to come after the verb.

 

If someone could either explain or give me a link that explains this I would be much obliged. Thanks

[Tiana]

There are two kinds of of rules in language:

- The rules of the language in the abstract, without reference to the context where it is used. This is when we say: the subject comes first in the sentence, etc. 

- The rules of the language as it operates in context, where some elements may be considered more important (or more relevant) than others. Generally speaking, the more important elements tend to be put at the beginning of the sentence, which is considered to be a prominent position.

[Shelley]

I have a note in the top right hand of my computer screen:

 

(When)   Who   Where  How    What        Duration
  (Time)  Subject  Place   Verb   Object  Time Duration

 

But and as Tiana says this can change, that is why the When is in brackets, sometimes the Who is more important.

 

This is very helpful, http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Word_order

[Lu]

I can't really explain the rules, but placing the different parts of a sentence in different order changes where the emphasis lies. In secondary school, I learned that in English, place comes before time, so 'I'm working from home today.' Yet 'Today I'm working from home' is also a completely correct sentence.

[roddy]

It's a Topic-Comment structure. You say what you're going to comment on, then you comment. We do the same in English, although I suspect less often and when we want to contrast. 

"What do you think of this outfit?" - "The dress, I really like. The shoes, I'm not so keen on."

Might seem a lot easier if you figure out where commas might go. 

[AdamD]

Oh! That must be why it's fine to say 用这个软件的西方人很多 and not 很多西方人用这个软件。 This has been tripping me up for years.

[Lu]

No, that's a different thing, that's just a very long sentence subject.

人很多

西方人很多

用电脑的西方人很多

用这个软件的西方人很多

以前喜欢用这个软件的西方人很多

this is all the same structure: X 很多, where X can be short (people) or long (Westerners who in the past liked using this software).

 

Topic-comment would be more like 这个软件西方人用得比较多 'Westerners use this software more often', with the subject still being 西方人.

 

用这个软件的西方人很多 'Westerners who use this software are many'

很多西方人用这个软件 'Many Westerners use this software'

The first sentence is not good English, which is why you'd end up translating it, too, as 'Many Westerners use this software', but it's a different sentence from the second.

[AdamD]

Thank you for that! I've printed it and stuck it to my wall.

 

In hindsight it's a fairly obvious grammatical progression, but sometimes it's easy to get caught up in what English does and completely miss the point.