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I'm trying to figure out if word order effects the meaning of a sentence. I've learnt that verbs should always come last and heard that the order of other words in the sentence isn't that strict as the subject and object can be determined from the particle. In contrast I know in English the subject and object is determined from word order.
So are these two sentences "I bought a dictionary" the same:
私は辞書{じしょ}を買い{かい}ました。
辞書{じしょ}を私は買い{かい}ました。
Yes, both share the same meaning, though sentence 2 sounds a little unreal (may be it could be possible in a poem or lyrics).
There is a word in linguistics called a "syntax marker". Japanese marks a sentence's syntax or structure using particles. Russian does so using word declensions. For languages with neither particles nor declensions, like English and Chinese, word order matters in order to indicate the structure.
So, Japanese has a somewhat freer word-order thanks to its particles.
Yes, the word order makes a slight difference in modality which describes the thought/emotion/belief of the speaker about the contents of a sentence/sentences towards the listener.
- 私は辞書{じしょ}を買い{かい}ました。
- 辞書{じしょ}を私は買い{かい}ました。
Both are completely accurate as a sentence in Japanese and mean 'I bought a dictionary' in English as you said. These two sentences can be decided into 3 clause phrases called 文節{ぶんせつ} in Japanese. 文節 is composed with an independent word (i.e., noun, adjective, verb) and an adjunct word (i.e. は, が, を).
1'. 私は / 辞書{じしょ}を / 買い{かい}ました。
2'. 辞書{じしょ}を / 私は / 買い{かい}ました。
Japanese tends to place the phrases in order of what the speaker wants to impress. In the sentence #2', 辞書{じしょ}を is placed in the first of the sentence, so the speaker wants to impress 辞書{じしょ}. Although, は is following 私 in the sentence. は is a topic marker and [noun/noun clause + は] is apt to position in the first in the sentence because it tells what is the topic/theme. So the sentence #2 & 2' sound a bit unnatural/unreal for some people. To make it sound more natural, you can replace を following 辞書{じしょ} to は and は following 私 to が*;
辞書{じしょ}は私が買い{かい}ました。
As for/talking about what I bought, it is a dictionary.
が is the subject marker in this sentence to tell who is the doer of the action (買いました). This will be another discussion, so I won't go further than this now.
