In Latin, grammatical function
and word order are
independent. Instead, grammatical function
is
indicated by morphology.
In Latin, nouns, adjectives,
some adverbs, and verbs are made up of stems and endings. The
endings change, depending on the grammatical function of the
word.
e.g. Casey loves her mistress,
Margaret.
Casia amat suam dominam,
Margaretam.
Suam dominam, Margaretam Casia amat.
Amat Casia suam dominam,
Margaretam.
Even though
the word order in
each of these sentences is quite different, they each
mean exactly
the same thing, with only a subtle change of
emphasis.
You know that Casia and not
Margaretam is the subject of the verb amat
because of the
underlined endings.