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Let me try a comparison in my field to attempt to explain one little part of a complicated difference in English and ASL grammar:
Present day English relies heavily on word-order for understanding.
For example, "I love you" means the subject loves the object. But turn those words around, and "You love I" means something entirely different, because "you" is now in the subject's place and (bad grammar aside), I has become the object.
However, in Old English (Icelandic), based more on the ancient Germanic tongue, the order is less important than the case (or form) of the word. In ancient Icelandic, "Ic liebe dich" meant "I love you," and if it were turned around, "Dich liebe ic" still meant the same thing.
Did that make any sense for one element of your question, or did I confuse things worse?
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