nuances - Sentence structure/element order

In the textbook Japanese for Busy People I, the order of the elements in a sentence is always the same (subject - when - with whom - by what means - to where - verb) at least as far as I have made it. Like so:

スミスさんは　あした　かいしゃの　ひとと　おおさかししゃに　いきます。

スミスさんは　きのう　ひとりで　おおさかししゃに　いきました。

スミスさんは　きんようびに　チャンさんと　しんかんせんで　おおさかに　いきました。

Is this order always the same in the Japanese language or is it is a specificity of my textbook in order to better synthesize each element that composes the sentence?

From what I understand, the first sentence could be translated into English with variations in the order of the elements:

Mr. Smith is going to the Osaka branch office with a colleague tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Mr. Smith is going to the Osaka branch office with a colleague.

Mr. Smith is going with a colleague to the Osaka branch office tomorrow.

Can these variations occur in Japanese as well? Or does the sentence have to have the order displayed above?

Please reply in kana, as I do not know any kanji.

Answer

If you compare the corresponding verbs in different languages, they all have the same hierarchical structure. What make difference at the surface include the following factors:

1) The hierarchical structure-to-word order mapping is different among languages. The most basic word order in Japanese and English that corresponds to the first example are

[あした[スミスさんが[かいしゃのひとと[おおさかに いきます]]]]

[[Mr. Smith is [[going to Osaka] with a collegaue]] tomorrow]

Notice that the elements are combined together in the same order: first the verb and destination, next with means, with whom, and so on, but since the two languages have different mapping rules from the hierarchical structure to the word order, they appear differently.

2) Phrases can be moved around by various rules, which give word order variations.

• Your second English sentence is derived by moving tomorrow to the front by a rule called topicalization. Your third English sentence is derived by moving to the Osaka branch office to the right of the verb phrase before tomorrow by a rule called heavy NP shift.


• Japanese has a rule called scrambling in addition to topicalization. Your first Japanese sentence is derived by topicalizing スミスさんが and moving it to the front. If you apply scrambling, you get 4 factorial = 24 different word orders including the following ones:

スミスさんが あした かいしゃのひとと おおさかに いきます

おおさかに あした スミスさんが かいしゃのひとと いきます
おおさかに スミスさんが あした かいしゃのひとと いきます

but sentences like

あした かいしゃのひとと スミスさんが おおさかに いきます

are not preferred because they are ambiguous.