Mdthbs

Compared to English, German has a fair amount of what I am describing as "Yoda-speak", whereby the order of elements in a sentence are in the reverse order of what they would be in English.

NOTE: If someone knows what the technical term is for what I am calling "Yoda-speak", please tell me what that term is and what the definition for it is.

As a native English speaker myself, in comparison with German, English appears to be much more "Speaker centric" (We even capitalize the first letter in the word 'I' when that is not done with 'ich').

For example:

English: "I could not do that."

German: "Das konnte ich nicht tun."

So in the English version the speaker (I/ich) is on the left side of the verb, but in the German version it is on the right. That's why I term it Yoda-speak, since I don't know what the technical term is for that. (Yoda: "Help you, I will").

I have noticed this pattern for a long time, but as of now, I still have failed to come up with a pattern I could remember that would guide me as to when and where I should put certain sentence elements on the two sides of the primary verb.

Note, I am not concerned with grammatic elements like the verb position alterations that are caused when using conjunctions like "deswegen, etc." which kick the verb to the end of the subsequent clause.

Can someone explain how German speakers think about sentence elements in a way that tells me where I should put the main sentence elements? Most notably, the two primary actors that reside on the left and right side of a sentence's primary verb?

In the example given above, how would a German mentally structure it? What is it about the German thought process that places the primary element the speaker is discussing on the left side of the verb when an English speaker would put it on the right side? In the example above, that sentence element would be the thing that the speaker could not do ("Das").

NOTE: I recognize that there are plenty of German sentences with the same structure as English in the sense that they place a personal pronoun at the start of the sentence. It is the large number of "Yoda-speak" cases that I still am unable to predict when that alternate sentence structure is commonly used.

You could as well say

"Ich konnte das nicht tun."

instead of

"Das konnte ich nicht tun."

which counts against your argument (emphasis mine)

As a native English speaker myself, in comparison with German, English appears to be much more "Speaker centric" ... .

I have noticed this pattern for a long time, but as of now, I still have failed to come up with a pattern I could remember that would guide me as to when and where I should put certain sentence elements on the two sides of the primary verb.

Können is an auxiliary verb in that sentence. The primary verb is tun.

The verb always appears at the second position as @CarstenS mentioned in their comment.

You can check this at the link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V2_word_order .

Can someone explain how German speakers think about sentence elements in a way that tells me where I should put the main sentence elements? Most notably, the two primary actors that reside on the left and right side of a sentence's primary verb?

It may be a concern of emphasis that Das is placed before the ich in your example.

Also your doubts of Yoda Speech don't really apply, in German translations it would be rather

"Nicht tun konnte ich das."

English is a SVO language. This means, the word order is:

1. 
   Subject


2. 
   Verb


3. 
   Object(s)

But German is a V2 language, this means:

• There must be a Verb at position 2

This allows German to have SPO constructions, like you knwo them from English:

Tom drinks beer.

Tom drinkt Bier.

But German also allows other constructions, for example:

Bier trinkt Tom.

In this particular example this is an unusual order, but still allowed and absolutely correct. You might use this order to highlight, that Tom doesn't drink wine or water, but beer.

There are some models to explain what can be used to fill the place left of the verb, and this here sounds quite good to me:

1. 
   

   Begin with the order SOV

   
   
   

   This means: Subject at position 1, Verb at the very last position, everything else between them. If a sentence contains more than one Verb, only one of them is finite (i.e declined) while all other are infinite (not declined). In this case it's the finite Verb that has to stand at the very end:

   
   
   

   
   

   Tom Bier trinkt
   
   ich das nicht tun konnte ("tun" in infinite, "konnte" is finite, its infinite form would be "können")

   
   

   
   
   

   btw: This is the order that you find in subjunctive clauses:

   
   
   

   
   

   Ich mag Tom nicht, weil Tom Bier trinkt.
   
   I don't like Tom, because Tom drinks beer.

   
   
   

   Ich fühle mich schuldig, weil ich das nicht tun konnte.
   
   I feel guilty, because I could not do that.

   
   

   
   


2. 
   

   Move the finite verb to position 1

   
   
   

   
   

   trinkt Tom Bier
   
   konnte ich das nicht tun

   
   

   
   
   

   btw: Now you have the order of a closed question (a question that needs to be answered with yes or no):

   
   
   

   
   

   Trinkt Tom Bier?
   
   Does Tom drink beer?

   
   
   

   Konnte ich das nicht tun?
   
   Couldn't I do that?

   
   

   
   


3. 
   

   Move another part of speech in front of the finite verb

   
   
   

   
   

   
   
   1. Tom drinkt Bier
   
   
   2. Bier drinkt Tom
   
   

   
   

   
   
   

   .

   
   
   

   
   

   
   
   1. ich konnte das nicht tun
   
   
   2. das konnte ich nicht tun
   
   
   3. tun konnte ich das nicht
   
   

   
   

   
   

Not everything is allowed on position 1. The word "nicht" can not be at position 1:

wrong: nicht konnte ich das tun

In English the topicalisation of declarative clauses is facultative, the subject is in first position, and there may be an additional item in front of it. While in German, declarative clauses are always topicalized.

Die Blätter fallen im Herbst von den Bäumen.

The leaves fall from the trees in autumn.

Im Herbst fallen die Blätter von den Bäumen.

In autumn the leaves fall from the trees.

The main difference is German insists on having exactly one item on front of the finite verb. That's why the subject must follow the finite verb if it isn't the topic.

And this explains how German speakers decide which item goes in front of the finite verb.

It's the topic.