Re: Cases + Word Order?

> Not only I don't see any problem with this, but I also know that there
> exist natlangs that actually work like this
I also don't see any problem.  My L1, German, does not distinguish
nominative and accusative for all feminine and neuter nouns but does
for the other cases.  So for those two genders, position marks the
function:

  > Die Frau  sieht das Kind.
    The woman sees  the child.

  > Das Kind sieht die Frau.
    The child sees the woman.

But a dative object kann be added anywhere, since it is marked.

  > Die Frau gibt dem Kind das Buch.
  > Dem Kind gibt die Frau das Buch.
  > Die Frau gibt das Buch dem Kind.

    The woman gives the book to the child.

(Ok, in this sentence, semantics disambiguate that a book cannot be
the agent, so the book and the woman can also be moved around, but I
could not come up with a better example.)

It is mixed mode in German, because with masculine nouns (and for pronouns),
case marks the function:
  > Den Mann    sieht die Frau.
    The man-ACC sees  the woman-NOM_or_ACC.
    The woman sees the man.

**Henrik