Many a true word is spoken in jest Many a true word is spoken in jest Many a true word is spoken in jest is an adage, aphorism or proverb. A version of this appears in the Prologue to The Cook's Tale (written in 1390) by Chaucer: ""Ful ofte in game a sooth I have herd saye!"". An early print appearance of the most familiar form of this aphorism was in Volume VII of the "Roxburghe Ballads", where appears in the prologue to "The Merry Man's Resolution, or A London Frollick". The ballad purportedly goes back to the 17th century, but the introductory verse was probably written by
Word order order occur due to topicalization or in questions. However, most languages are generally assumed to have a basic word order, called the unmarked word order; other, marked word orders can then be used to emphasize a sentence element, to indicate modality (such as an interrogative modality), or for other purposes. For example, English is SVO (subject-verb-object), as in "I don't know that", but OSV is also possible: "That I don't know." This process is called topic-fronting (or "topicalization") and is common. In English, OSV is a "marked word order" because it emphasises the object, and is often accompanied by a