The Word for World Is Forest Word for World Is Forest" portrays a communication gap that the protagonists are never able to bridge. Both the native Athsheans and the loggers have languages that reflect their perceptions of reality, but they are unable to find a common language. In the native Athshean language, the word ""Athshe"" means both "forest" and "world", demonstrating the close link that the Athsheans have to the forest and their planet. It is noted by Lyubov that the Athsheans believe "the substance of their world was not earth, but forest". The language used by the Athsheans during conversations similarly show their interconnectedness and
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