Word order typology and language universals

6.4. Variant word orders 
Where there is variation in word order, we can attempt to determine whether one 
order is basic. English exhibits a variety of word orders, but no one doubts that SVO is the 
basic or unmarked one. A pattern such as the following is highly marked (Mallinson and 
Blake, 1981: 125). 
The proposals contained in section one of the bill we support; those in sections two 
and three and those in the sections two and three and those in the appendix to section 
four we cannot support in any shape or form whatsoever.
This OSV pattern can be used to topicalize the object or to focus it.
When we use the term ‘basic word order’ we mean the order that obtains in 
stylistically- neutral, independent, indicative clauses with full noun phrase participants for S1 
or for A and O. English is of course easy to be classified as SVO. However, a problem arises 
when the principle of arranging the words in a sentence is allowed to be more responsive to 
the demands of topicalization and focus than is the case in modern English. In old English, 
there appears to have been much more freedom in word order 

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Old English is a language that exhibits a good deal of freedom of word order and a 
tendency for AdVS patterns. The order used for a stylistically unmarked sentence such as 
John saw Mary 
is almost certainly SVO. We would classify old English as SVO/Free. (It 
means free at the referential level. It does not imply that the use of one order rather than use 
of one order rather than another is of no significance.) The order used for a stylistically 
unmarked version of
john saw Mary
in German would be SVO too, but to simply call 
German an SVO language would disguise the verb-second nature of its word order
. 
7. Factors Determining word order