Does word order change the meaning of a sentence?

I'm trying to figure out if word order effects the meaning of a sentence. I've learnt that verbs should always come last and heard that the order of other words in the sentence isn't that strict as the subject and object can be determined from the particle. In contrast I know in English the subject and object is determined from word order.

So are these two sentences "I bought a dictionary" the same:

1. 
   

   私は辞書{じしょ}を買い{かい}ました。

   
   


2. 
   

   辞書{じしょ}を私は買い{かい}ました。

   
   

Answer

Yes, both share the same meaning, though sentence 2 sounds a little unreal (may be it could be possible in a poem or lyrics).

There is a word in linguistics called a "syntax marker". Japanese marks a sentence's syntax or structure using particles. Russian does so using word declensions. For languages with neither particles nor declensions, like English and Chinese, word order matters in order to indicate the structure.

So, Japanese has a somewhat freer word-order thanks to its particles.