Mark--
Thanks for the info, but there is another major factor influencing inversion in English, since word order effectively replaces inflections in creating meaning. In English, "John killed the bear" and "The bear killed John" are radically different in meaning, though in Latin and its immediately derivative languages parallels to this word order might well be synonymous, inflections indicating subject and object regardless of word order, which might well be varied for reasons of emphasis, sound, or meter.
I'd guess that most readers or listeners would assume that "The ball John caught" meant "The ball [that] John caught" and would be waiting for a predicate: "...was headed for the left field bleachers."
Similarly, "The bear John killed..." But "John the bear killed" is at best awkward and ambiguous. Of course English can and does exploit such ambiguities effectively.
Vive l'Anglais!
Cheers,
Jan
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