vorschriftsmäßige Satzstellung im Englischen ist S-P-O. Im Deutschen gibt es mehr Freiheiten und man kann z.B. zur Hervorhebung Worte oder Wortgruppen an den Satzanfang stellen. Im Englischen gibt es zum Hervorheben cleft sentences.

Hier eine gute Erklärung

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

@ 9 Das war Spaß.

Zur Funktion von Inversion in literarischen Texten:

The use of inversion is an important stylistic technique in both prose and poetry. It allows for the writer to organize thoughts in an interesting way in order to emphasis certain ideas to the reader. In addition to focusing the attention to certain words or phrases, by using a different order than the typical sentence structure, it creates a certain rhythm to the piece of literature.

https://writingexplained.org/grammar-dictiona...

writing colloquially (which was part of the OP's question) (#9)

OP: Könnte man aber auch umgangssprachlich oder als Variante sagen

Ich habe mich nur über die generalisierende Aussage This inversion of subject and object sounds clumsy (in #3) gewundert. Da war nicht von Umgangssprache die Rede; aber vielleicht bezog sich this nur auf das OP-Zitat und nicht auf die Konstruktion an sich.

Edit: Klar, Spaß war es auch.

#10 Quotation from "writingexplained" website

Who writes this stuff?

Firstly, the section gives poor examples of inversion: just "the woman of small stature" instead of "the small woman" (I wouldn't even call that inversion), and then Yoda from Star Wars! Later on it does give further examples from Shakespeare and a twentieth-century poet.

Secondly, it's in terrible English. E.g.:

... they purposefully reword the phrasing in sentences to contrast the traditional organization in order to achieve a desired affect on the audience

By having him speak in a manner of inversion,... it allows for his wise words to stand out to the audience.

... in order to emphasis cetain ideas to the reader. In addition to focusing the attention to certain words and phrases ... it creates a certain rhythm to the piece of literature.

In summation, inversion is a technique used by writers when they desire to stray [!] from typical syntax. By using this device, authors are able to create a rhythm to their work as well as draw emphasis to important subject matter.

Who writes this stuff?

Keine Ahnung!

poor examples

Die hatte ich tatsächlich übersehen, da ich in erster Linie nach einer Definition gesucht habe. Asche auf mein Haupt.

Hier sind brauchbare Beispiele:

https://www.britannica.com/art/inversion-lite...

zu #14

Definition -> Erklärung

(noch mehr Asche...)

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

The "there" makes a difference.

"used for introducing a statement about someone that exists or something that happens

there lives/follows/comes etc:

Long ago there lived a beautiful princess."

https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionar...

FWIW, aus dem Britannica-Link in #14 :

 inversion

literature

Alternate titles: anastrophe

By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica | View Edit History

Fast Facts

Facts & Related Content

Related Topics:

   prosody

inversion, also called anastrophe, in literary style and rhetoric, the syntactic reversal of the normal order of the words and phrases in a sentence, as, in English, the placing of an adjective after the noun it modifies (“the form divine”), a verb before its subject (“Came the dawn”), or a noun preceding its preposition (“worlds between”). Inversion is most commonly used in poetry in which it may both satisfy the demands of the metre and achieve emphasis:

   In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

   A stately pleasure dome decree

   (from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan”)

Inversion used simply for the sake of maintaining a rhyme scheme is considered a literary defect, although it is a common convention in folk ballads:

   Then up spoke the captain of our gallant ship,

   And a well-spoken man was he;

   “I have married a wife in Salem town,

   And tonight she a widow will be” ...

Interesting how the literary examples (unless I've missed one) are in the past tense:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

   A stately pleasure dome decree

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

Does it not work in the present tense?

In the tree there live some birds.



#24, 25: An example in the present tense, from an old folk song:

On yonder hill there stands a creature ...

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=on+yonder+h...

No, I think your instinct is right -- I'm sure the vast majority of cases are in the past tense. (There has to be an exception that proves the rule!)

I agree with you about In the tree there live some birds. One would simply not say this, unless one had some very particular reason.

Nochmal auf meine Gedanken in #15 hinweisend...

Es kann doch sein, dass hier ein Schüler eine Bildbetrachtung schrieb. Da ist "Im Baum leben Vögel" denkbar. Aber wie gesagt, siehe meine #1, es ist ja das Englische, das der Schüler schrieb. Und demandeuse schrieb in "Gegeben" ihre leider nicht ganz mit dem Englischen kompatible Übertragung des wohl-Gedachten ins Deutsche.

(Frustrierend, dieser Faden...)

So kompliziert sollte es nicht werden. Und man muss auch nicht allzu fein alles analysieren,

Seltsame Einstellung für jemanden, der die Frage stellt, ob man etwas so sagen kann.

Finde es nicht frustrierend, eher verwirrend.

Im Baum leben Vögel - Wer spricht wo so? Kinder?

Auf dem Baum leben Vögel (u. a.).

Weil, ich habe schon viele Bäume gefällt, fand "im Baum" aber nie einen Vogel.