Other differences will be discussed here; they are not connected to syntactic rules but to communication strategies or to other factors.
The title of an old film, A star is born, was translated into Italian as E' nata una stella. At first it would seem that the version is incorrect because in English we talk about a star and say that it is born, whereas in Italian we talk about somebody or something that is born and say that it is a star. It would appear that the same differences would apply as those that make the theme-rheme sequence different in Arriva la 50 and La 50 arriva. (33) Here, anyway, we do not perceive any big differences in meaning because, in a title and in both languages, the sequence is wholly rhematic, as it only conveys new information. The remarkable fact remains that the "normal" (technically: unmarked) word order shows a clear difference. A partly similar example, with another famous title, is For whom the bell tolls Û Per chi suona la campana.
Prayers contain examples of optatives with different word orders in subject-verb sequences: in the Lord's Prayer, for instance, we can find Thy kingdom come Û venga il Tuo regno e Thy will be done Û sia fatta la Tua volontà, and Gloria Patri begins with Glory be Û Sia gloria. (34)
Another difference in the discourse sequence is in the position of time adverbials. In Italian they tend to be placed at the beginning of the answer when the question contains a time adverbial; for example:
36) Chi viveva in America nel XV secolo? Nel XV secolo in America vivevano gli Indiani
37) Che cosa hai fatto sabato scorso? Ehm... Ah, sì: sabato scorso sono stata a una festa di matrimonio.
The same word-order would not be acceptable in English, or at least it would sound unnatural:
36a) * In the 15th century in America lived the Indians.
37a) ? Last Saturday I was to a wedding-party. (35)
The unmarked order is:
36b) The Indians lived in America in the 15th century.
37b) I was to a wedding-party last Saturday.
Indians and wedding-party can be emphasised by means of prosody. However, all the redundant information is frequently omitted from the answers:
36c) The Indians / The Indians did
37c) To a wedding-party
These short answers are perfectly acceptable in most cases, in particular if the auxiliary is repeated (e.g. The Indians did). They do not sound sharp and impolite — unlike some short answers in Italian.
Prosody (stress and intonation) is not the only device that can be used for emphasis and salience in order to reflect the deep organisation of discourse. As we have seen, extraposition devices (fronting, clefts, etc.) can also be used for the same purpose, in speaking as well as in writing.
4.1. Embedding and recursiveness
Another difference between spoken and written English can be found in relation with embedding, that is the insertion of clauses inside other clauses. The most frequent case is represented by non-defining relative clauses. A sentence like:
38) The Cavanaghs, who live next door, are Irish.
is typically found in a written text; in speaking, parataxis is usually preferred to hypotaxis:
38a) The Cavanaghs are Irish; they live next door.
In formal writing, more levels of subordination can be found within the main clause:
39) The Cavanaghs, who have lived next door ever since they arrived from Ireland, have four children.
The time clause is subordinate to the relative clause, which, in its turn, is subordinate to the main clause. However, the multiple embedding of a relative clause inside a relative clause is not allowed:
40) * Mr Cavanagh, whose wife Sinead, whom I know very well, teaches history, is an engineer.
Instead, there is a high degree of recursiveness at the end of the utterance; the nursery rhyme The House that Jack Built is a typical example:
41) This is the house that Jack built.
This is the corn that lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the rat that ate the corn...
This is the farmer who sowed the corn, and owned the cock that crowed in the morn, that woke the priest all shaven and shorn, that married the man all tattered and torn, that kissed the maiden all forlorn, that milked the cow with the crumpled horn, that tossed the dog, that worried the cat, that killed the rat, that ate the corn, that lay in the house that Jack built.