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by numpad0 1737 days ago
"書類を読むために開ける" sound to me that it follows subject-object-verb model. When I was taught English, early learner materials would contrast the grammatical difference from Japanese as one is SOV and the other is SVO with subjects frequently omitted, but Wikipedia article[1] today mentions Japanese language has "topic-comment" sentence structure, which seems to make sense to me.

A more natural form of those sentences would be "メッセージ/文書を送信(Send message/text)" and "書類を開いて読む(open and read document)" or "書類を読み込む(read-ingest document)", than implied imperative "[You] must send message" or "[You] open document for the purpose of reading" which don't feel to me that they follow this topic-comment logical structures.

This topic-comment model is also seen in Nadesiko Japanese programming language, as quoted below from "open file" function reference page:

> 「ファイル.txt」を開いて、Sに代入。

> Sを表示。

(my attempt at translation:)

> "file.txt" be opened, S it assign to.

> S be displayed.

As clearly seen, the object such as filename or variable are brought up first, then subsequently augmented, with subject simply missing.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_grammar

2: https://nadesi.com/v3/doc/index.php?plugin_node%2F%E9%96%8B&...