Explaining the origins of word order using information theory

For those who would appreciate a brief summary of the article's hypothesis before clicking --

An M.I.T. study found that when communicating with gestures rather than verbally, even speakers of English—which normally uses a Subject-Verb-Object word order—switched to a Subject-Object-Verb sequence. The supposition is that the known information is introduced before new information. Thus SOV might be considered a natural" word order preference. An interesting exception was found, however, when both the subject and the object were people, possibly so that there is no confusion regarding which party is the subject and which is the object.

Thanks for your bothering to summarize it, AnMA. I wasn't in reading mood; it was helpful.