Word order is in Czech the most important means of communicating TFA. There are the following strong tendencies concerning surface word order in Czech:
in Czech surface word order, the boundary between contextually bound and contextually non-bound expressions (see Section 2, "Contextual boundness") is signalled by the position of the governing verb. In unmarked cases, direct modifications of the governing verb appearing before it in the surface word order are contextually bound.
The value of dependent modifications occurring deeper in the tree is not signalled by their position to the left or to the right from the governing verb. In surface word order, before the verb there can also appear contextually non-bound modifications of contextually bound expressions depending directly on the verb.
direct modifications of the governing verb that are contextually non-bound have an analogous tendency to appear after the verb.
there is a strong tendency of placing focus proper (see Section 3.1.1, "Focus proper") at the very end of the sentence (see Section 1.2.1, "Intonation centre").
Compare:
Černý kocour se napil ze své misky. (=lit. (The) black tomcat drank from its bowl.)
The contextually bound direct modification of the governing verb kocour (=tomcat) appears to the left from the verb. The contextually non-bound direct modification of the governing verb miska (=bowl) appears to the right from the verb.
The more deeply occurring modification černý (=black) is contextually non-bound, but it appears before the governing verb together with its governing contextually bound expression appearing before the verb. The contextually bound modification svůj (=its) appears after the governing verb together with its governing contextually non-bound expression.
Cf. Fig. 10.4 in Section 3.1, "Basic guidelines for the ordering of nodes in a tectogrammatical tree".
Particularly two types of constructions constitute exceptions to these general tendencies: constructions with the verb on "the second position" in the sentence and constructions with the so-called subjective order.
Constructions with the verb on "the second position" in the sentence. The governing verb sometimes does not appear on the boundary between contextually bound and contextually non-bound expressions (depending directly on the verb), but it appears immediately after the first sentence part, on "the second position " in the sentence (both with the boundary and without the boundary in that position). In this case contextually bound expressions can appear to the right from the verb.
Compare:
Prezident Klaus odjel včera na zahraniční návštěvu. (=lit. President Klaus left yesterday for (an) international visit.)
The contextually bound expression včera (=yesterday) appears to the right from the verb, the verb is on "the second position" in the sentence. Cf. Fig. 10.5 in Section 3.1, "Basic guidelines for the ordering of nodes in a tectogrammatical tree".
Constructions with the so-called subjective order. In unmarked cases (the so-called objective order) the modifications of the verb appearing before it are contextually bound. In the subjective order, however, there are contextually non-bound modifications appearing before the verb. Due to the pragmatics the most dynamic part of the sentence is placed at the beginning.
Compare:
Taky KAREL se doma ukázal. (=lit. Also Charles _ at_home showed_up.)
The contextually non-bound expressions taky (=also) and Karel (=Charles) appear to the left from the governing verb, the sentence has the subjective order (see also Section 3.1, "Basic guidelines for the ordering of nodes in a tectogrammatical tree"). Cf. Fig. 10.6.
The subjective order is admittedly a strongly marked phenomenon occurring mostly in spoken language, where it is adequately signalled by the intonation centre (see Section 1.2.1, "Intonation centre"). In written language, we can identify the subjective order mainly from the fact that contextually bound expressions are placed at the end of the sentence, the verb itself is usually also contextually bound.