The mode of thinking of Chinese and mode of thinking of English are different, so cause the word order of Chinese and the word order of English are different. If know the mode of thinking of Chinese, it is will be a little easier for westerners to learn Chinese.
Generally speaking, one sentence, one paragraph or one article shows some information to reader, i.e.: time, place, people, matter and result. This was expressed through the special interrogative in the concrete language. I talk about the mode of thinking of English and the word order of English at first. Please see the following example:
According to example above, the word order of English is: “Subject - Verb - Object – Manner Adverbial - Place Adverbial - Time Adverbial”. We understand its order and know the position of every information point. We will think “Who - Do - What - How do - Where - When” when we read one sentence, one paragraph or one article.
The following is the Chinese expression of this sentence:
The Chinese expression is translated into English: “Yesterday, in the next room, the children happily played computer games”. The word order of Chinese is: “Time Adverbial - Place Adverbial - Subject - Manner Adverbial - Verb - Object”. The mode of thinking of Chinese is “When - Where Who – How -Do - What”.
Therefore, Chinese and English are totally different, no matter the mode of thinking, or word order.
It is helpful for learning Chinese to know this difference!
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Very clear and to the point explanation - I like the graphic you use. The word order issue is a major one and it really pays off to ‘brainwash’ yourself when learning Chinese. I’ve found that if you get it wrong, people barely understand what you are saying.