Lecture 18
Postponement, Fronting and Inversion
•
•
•
•
•
•
Normal order:
SVO
SVC
My mother likes a cup of tea every afternoon.
End focus and end weight
End focus: New information, usually expressed by
the predicate, is the message to be conveyed, and the
focus or the most important part of the message
usually occupies the end position in the sentence.
• End weight: the construction of the subject is usually
shorter and less complicated than that of the predicate
where the new information lies, as to avoid being topheavy or awkwardly unbalanced.
• We often emphasize a particular part of a
sentence.
• In speech : stress and intonation
• In writing: changing the position of
elements in a sentence.
• Cleft sentences
• fronting
1. Postponement
•
•
•
•
•
Postponement means placement of a non-ending
element at the end of a sentence.
a grammatical device for achieving emphasis.
compare:
He gave me a book.
He gave a book to me.
This shows the importance of final placement in
the ordering of words.
• 1. The Warren report has left many questions
unanswered.
• It has been accepted by most Americans.
• 2. A country remains military strong.
• It needn’t worry about being attacked.
2. Fronting and inversion
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Fronting: the placement of a normally non-initial
element at the head of a sentence so as to give
prominence and lend emphasis.
Fronting without inversion
1. for textual cohesion:
Mr. White fried two pieces of fish. One of these he fed to
his cat. The other he ate himself.
2. to acquire a contrastive meaning and to ensure balance
in sentence structure
Joan he gave nothing, but George he gave 10 shillings.
Fool Joe may be, but thief he is not.
•
3. inversion
•
is most frequently found in sentence where an adverbial is
fronted.
two types of inversion :
full inversion: reversal of the subject and the whole
predicate;
partial inversion: reversal of the subject and the operator
only.
•
•
•
• 3.1 Full inversion commonly occurs when the fronted
adverbial is a locative or an onomatopoeia and when the
predicator is a verb of motion such as come or go, eg:
• There was a sudden gust of wind, and away went his hat.
• There comes the bus.
• ? Here comes it.
• Full inversion is also common when the fronted adverbial
is a prepositional phrase denoting place, eg:
•
At the back of the house was an untidy garden.
•
For years I have been writing to the President in the
White House. To meet him is my most fervent wish.
• 3.2 Partial inversion usually takes place
• A. when the fronted adverbial comprises a negative word or a
word with negative implication, eg:
•
Never have I found him in such a good mood.
•
Rarely do I get invited into his office alone.
• B. when the fronted adverbial is “only + adverb / prepositional
phrase / adverbial clause,” eg:
•
Only yesterday did he find out that his watch was missing.
•
Only through sheer luck did he manage to get some tickets.
•
?Only members can park here.
• C. when the sentence is introduced by “Not only … (but also)”, eg:
•
Not only did he complain about the food, he also refused to
pay for it.
• D. when a sentences is introduced by the correlative so (…
that). When initial so modifies an adjective, there is full
inversion:
•
So dangerous were the avalanches that skiing had to be
stopped.
• When initial so modifies an adverb, there is partial inversion:
•
So quickly did the workmen finish the Job that they
were highly praised.
• E. when the adverbial of manner or frequency is fronted. If
the subject is heavily modified, then even full inversion is
possible, eg:
•
Gladly would I pay more if I could get better service.
•
Many a time has Mike given me good advice.
• Long live the king!
• So be it!
• May he live to regret this decision.