Word Order and Functional Sentence Perspective of Messages: Recommendations for Simultaneous Interpreters

Some languages have similar models of functional sentence perspective (FSP) as it was mentioned above, which means that the rheme (the "new information") tends to be placed at the end of utterances by the speakers. These are usually languages with the fixed word order, like English. However in languages with the free word order (like Ukrainian, Russian and other Slavonic languages) the rheme may be placed in any place of the oral utterance and may be marked either by putting the rheme in an unusual place (e.g. at the beginning of the utterance), by the use of the passive voice constructions (in which the grammatical subject denotes the object of the action, while the grammatical object denotes the doer of the action), or by intonation (putting a special stress on the "most important words").

Generally speaking "the word order" is defined as the "arrangement of the components of the sentence in a certain order" [Чернов 1987: 196]. However, in the practice of oral interpreting the "arrangement of the components of the sentence" mostly refers to identification of the object (both direct and indirect) and the subject. Compare the following utterances with their relevant translations: