A study on english inversion

Pmotion Predicator denoting motion Q-element clause element containing the Q-word S-BeOp inversion of Subject and Operator "Be" S-BeP inversion of Subject and Predicator "Be" S-Op inver

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH

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GRADUATION THESIS B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDIES

A STUDY ON ENGLISH INVERSION

A STUDY ON ENGLISH INVERSION

I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced

by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement and that the report is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor

Hanoi, 04 May, 2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I should like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Ho Ngoc Trung of Ha Noi Open University My teacher did an enormously helpful advice, enlightening guidance and encouragement, which are the most precious things and indispensable for the accomplishment of this study I also wish to acknowledge his invaluable suggestions and detailed, constructive comments which improved the thesis more perfect

I am greatly indebted to Dr Quang, Dean of Ha Noi Open University, Faculty of English, for his invaluable suggestions and best conditions for me and other students to complete our study

My sincere words of thanks also go to Ms Trang at the Library for providing me an abundant source of primary data which help me complete my research

Last but not least, I am grateful to my family and my friends who have

in one way or the other supported me during the thesis completion

Finally, I would like to take full responsibility for this paper and lay sole claim to any of its shortcomings or imperfections

Hanoi, 4 May 2015

Nguyen Thi Hoang Anh

SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

A.Ns Semi-negative Adverbial

AOnly Adverbial beginning with "Only"

Pmotion Predicator denoting motion

Q-element clause element containing the Q-word

S-BeOp inversion of Subject and Operator "Be"

S-BeP inversion of Subject and Predicator "Be"

S-Op inversion of Subject and Operator

S-P inversion of Subject and Predicator

Vcomlex-trans complex transitive Verb

Vditrans ditransitive Verb

Vint intensive Verb

Vmonotrans monotransitive Verb

When there are two numbers inside the parentheses separated by a colon, e.g (1989:131), the former number indicates the year published the book and the latter indicates the page(s)

The symbol / (oblique stroke) is used to separate alternative words, phrases or terms

The symbol → indicates the transfer from the first sentence or structure to the second one

The symbol – mentions examples or details for each kind of inversion

LIST OF TABLES

Pages

Table 1.1: Difference between fronted element with and without inversion 22

Table 2.1: Examples of negative yes-no question 28

Table 2.2: Positive and negative tag questions 31

Table 2.3: Examples of Negative and Positive tag questions 32

Table 2.4: Examples of Positive and positive tag questions 32

Table 2.5: Examples of Negative and Negative tag questions 32

Table 2.6: Examples of Wh-questions with S-Op inversion 37

Table 2.7: Examples of inversion with initial negative adverbial 39

Table 2.8: Examples of inversion with a semi-negative adverbial 40

Table 2.9: Examples of inversion with the fronting of an adverbial begin with “Only” 41

Table 2.10: Examples of inversion with “so/such… that” and “no sooner” or “hardly/scarcely” 45

Table 2.11: Examples of inversion with initial adverbial 46

Table 2.12: Examples of inversion in conditional sentence 47

Table 2.13: Examples of initial “Here” or “There” 50

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

PART B: INVESTIGATION 6

CHAPTER 1:THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES 6

1.1 Word Order 6

1.1.1 Word Order and Linearity 6

1.1.2 Word Order, Patterns and Structures 7

1.1.3 Marked and Unmarked Word Order 9

1.2 English Inversion 10

1.2.1 Sentence Elements 11

1.2.2 Operators 14

1.2.3 Definition of English Inversion 15

1.2.4 Fronting and Inversion 19

1.2.4.1 End-focus and End-weight 19

1.2.4.2 Theme 20

1.2.4.3 Fronting and Inversion 21

1.3 Types of Sentences according to Communicative Functions 23

CHAPTER 2:CONCRETE CASES OF ENGLISH INVERSION 26

2.1 Subject-Operator Inversion 26

2.1.1 In Question 26

2.1.1.1 In Yes-no questions 26

2.1.1.1.1 In Yes-no questions 26

1.1.1.1.2.In Negative Yes-no questions 28

2.1.1.1.3 In Tag Questions 29

2.1.1.1.4 In Echo Tags 33

2.1.1.1.5 In Exclamatory Questions 34

2.1.1.2 In Wh- Questions 35

2.1.1.3 In Alternative Questions 37

2.1.2 In Commands with Question Tags 38

2.1.3 In Exclamations 38

2.1.4 In Statements 39

2.1.4.1 With an Initial Negative Adverbial 39

2.1.4.2 With an Semi-Negative Adverbial 40

2.1.4.3 With Initial “So” 42

2.1.4.4 With Initial “Neither/Nor” 42

2.1.4.5 With an Initial Subordinator 43

2.1.4.6 With an Initial Adverbial 45

2.1.4.7 With an Initial Negative Object 46

2.1.4.8 With an Initial Negative Complement 46

2.1.4.9 With Initial Predication 47

2.1.4.10 Inversion as a Signal of Conditional Clauses 47

2.1.5 In Formulae 48

2.2 Subject-Predicator Inversion 49

2.2.1 In Statements 49

2.2.1.1 With Intensive “Be” as Predicator 49

2.2.1.1.1 With an Initial Complement 49

2.2.1.1.2 With an Initial Adverbial 50

2.2.1.1.3 With Initial “Here” or “ There” 50

2.2.1.2 With a Verb Other Than “Be” as Predicator 51

2.2.1.2.1 With an Initial Adverbial 51

2.2.1.2.2 With Initial “Here” 53

2.2.1.2.3 With Initial “There” 53

2.2.1.2.4 With No Initial Element 54

2.2.1.3 With a Reporting Verb as Predicator 54

2.2.1.4 With a Whole Verb Phrase as Predicator 56

2.2.2 In Exclamation 57

2.2.3 In Formulae 57

CHAPTER 3:APPLICATION OF THE STUDY 58

3.1 Common mistakes in using inversion 58

3.1.1 Mistakes in using inversion with Negative complement 58

3.1.2 Mistakes in using inversion with initial Predication 59

3.1.3 Mistakes in using inversion as a signal of conditional clauses 60

3.2 Suggested solutions 61

3.2.1 Suggested types of exercises 61

PART C: CONCLUSION 66

BIBLIOGRAPHY 68

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Background

English, like many other languages, is full of problems for the foreign learners As Alexander L.G (1993:9) states, what makes language difficult is not just words, but the way words are combined to make sentences, for a sentence is a sum-total of words and this sum-total is greater than its parts On the other hand, it is easy to realize that the aims of learning foreign language

is to communicate appropriately by means of the foreign language and that understanding the grammar of English can help learners to communicate since grammar is the support system of communication

Inversion is a linguistically-specified formal device integrated in the main syntactic classes of sentences The subject could appear in such a special

situation like: “Why are you looking at me like this?” or “Never have I eaten such a delicious meal”; or the inverted order of S and P like: “On a mountain

in front of me stands a great castle”, etc

This study - English Inversion is prompted by both theoretical and practical inspirational sources

Theoretically, this study is based on linearity of linguistics signifiers which is one of the two primary principles of linguistics established by Ferdinand de Saussure According to him, linguistic signifiers are “linear” in the sense that they represent a dimension measurable only as a line, due to their temporal existence It is this tenet that underlines the syntagmatic relationships in English structures Typologically, English is synthetic language: there are few inflectional endings, and word order changes are the basis of the grammar It has a fundamental SVO order, for instance, the functions of Subject an Object are carried by preverbal and postverbal

position In English, Inversion is a formal device associated with word order permutations at the sentence level:

- What are the inversion structures?

- How can they be described?

- In what way do they differ from their basic structures?

- What are their motivations and effects?

In this study, I would like to use my attemptation to help you find out the answers to these questions above The study also helps to provide grounds for the fact that linearity is realized at different degrees in different subgroups

of languages Moreover, it is to illuminate the nature of inverted order in English and how it is realized The result contributes to the facilitations of teaching English grammar

2 Aims of the study

The aims of this study - English Inversion are:

- To present, classify and describe all the possible cases of English Inversion structures

- To predict some problems that may induce types of errors in the studying of English

- To suggest some types of exercises in an effort to prevent the errors and

to overcome the consequences of interference

- Put forward some suggestions for the preparations of the teaching materials involving English inversion

Since word order has basically been conceived as a phenomenon of dual nature, first being related to grammar, second to style, an attempt is made at examining the styles of various cases of English inversion listed in this study

In addition, it shows an effort to find out the motivations behind a number of special inversion structures and the effects created by their presence

3 Limitation of the study

The structures are investigated in statements, questions, commands and exclamations-the four major syntactic classes classified according to different communication functions Besides, formulae as a minor sentence type are also taken into consideration There are always have some interplays of each language word order (i.e strictly grammatical) and functional factors

English inversion is utilized in various functional styles, e.g the lettres functional style (the language style of poetry, the language style of emotive prose, the language style of drama), the publicistic functional style (the language style of oratory, the language style of essays, the language style

belles-of newspaper and journal articles), the functional style belles-of everyday-life discourse, etc It would be a good idea to study inversion in only one functional style However, since this paper is the first step in approaching such a fascinating object of study It is intended to serve as a backdrop for the more exhaustive and delicate inquiries As far as its limitation as concerned, this paper deals with English inversion in various functional styles except for the language styleof poetry This does not mean that inversion does not occur

in poetry; on the contrary, it is widely employed in verses like:

- In Xanadu did Kuble Khan

A stately pleasure dome decree

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

- 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”

(From “The Mermaid”, anonymous)

As a master of fact, the above-mentioned inversion structures cannot be examined without considering the rhymed and rhythmic patterns governingthe verses Consequently, inversion in poetry is beyond the scope of this paper

It is axiomatic that inversion is associated with word order The term

“word order” can refer both to the order of words in a phrase, and to the order

of multi-word units within a sentence The scope of this study is restricted to the second implication i.e it deals with the reversal of sentence elements only,in particular the permutation of subject and operator or predicator: it is not concerned with such cases as “steel sheet” – “sheet steel”, etc

4 Method

This study carries out a microlinguistic analysis on the level of syntax, the grammar of sentences concerned with the way in which words or particular word classes are combined to form sentences According to Swan,M (1980:25) puts it, a sentence is “a group of words that expresses a statement, command, question or exclamation A sentence consists of one or more clauses, and usually has at least one subject and finite verb In writing, it begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark” Linguistics have agreed that all sentences are made up of one or more clauses and that simple sentences are sentences consisting of only one clause

The interpersonal meaning of a sentence determines what kind of speech act it performs for its user: to praise, condemn, refuse, agree and so on Besides, the textual meaning of a sentence also helps to determine how to maintain cohesion and coherence

All the information and documents in this study are taken from the materials or references in which the examples involved have been examined, described and classified

5 Design of the study

This study is divided into 3 parts The first part is the introduction to the study The second part entitled “Investigation” consists of three chapters Chapter 1 discusses the theoretical preminaries in which it lays emphasis on identifying the characteristics of inversion in English, distinguishing inversion from fronting Chapter 2 presents and describes concrete cases of English inversion Chapter 3 present application of the study such as common mistakes in using inversion and deals with that problem The third part, which

is the conclusion, presents a review of the study, closing with the suggestions for further research Last but not least, the appendix presents the writer’s adjusted translations with a parallel of the sake of revision

PART B: INVESTIGATION CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES

1.1 Word Order

1.1.1 Word Order and Linearity

According to Huddleston et al (2002), inversion is a process of

linguistic to introduce entities into discourse.

In linguistic description, word order studies usually refer to the sequence in which grammar elements such as Subject, Verb and Object occur

in sentences A great deal of attentions has been paid to the way in which languages vary the order of these elements, as part of typological studies According to Firbas (1986:40-47) every element in an inversion sentence carries out a dynamic semantics function such as verbs express appearance of something or somebody, adverbial creates a setting

as “the thing signified” and “the thing which signifies”; the relationship

between them is arbitrary The significant occurs in the stream of time and thus are governed by the characteristics of time Time is by nature one-way only, so the significant come out successively in a one-way direction, forming

a sequence In writing, the stream of time is replaced by the span of lines Any sentence, for Saussure is a sequence of signs, each sign contributing something to the meaning of the whole, and each contrasting with all other signs in the language This sequence can be seen as syntagmatic relationships – that is a linear between the signs which are present in the sentence

For example:

“I met Jeamin yesterday”

There is a syntagmatic relationship, consisting of four signs in a particular order: S + P + property oflanguage makes it impossible for people to produce two linguistic signs simultaneously

In short, when a person hears or looks at a display of speech or writing, the dimension he is most conscious of is a horizontal one, which shows the linear order of the bits of language It perhaps the principle of the linearity is nature and simple, however, it governs all the ways in which language operates and emphasis on syntagmatic relationships in structure which was taken as the keynote and approaches to language today

1.1.2 Word Order, Patterns and Structures

Berry,M (1975:16) gave an idea to use the term “chain” to mention the horizontal dimension of language or the syntagmatic axis of language According to her, any utterance consists of a number of language, one after another, in a sequence, and the dimension along which the sequence occurs is called the dimension (or axis) of chain She also indicates that each bit of language forms a link in the whole chain of a complete utterance and that the

dimension of chain is correspondent to the time dimension in spoken language, and to either the time or space dimension in written language

Patterns occur along the dimension of chain Each language has a number of patterns which belong to it but does not have certain others For

example: We say “It’s a beautiful girl” not “It’s girl beautiful a”

As regards sentences, they are not simply random strings of words and morphemes, but conform to specific patterns determined by the syntactic rules

of the language This statement is true of all human languages According to Green (1989:131), the subject which is introduced in a discourse can be an important person or element belongs to a story or what they talk about For example, the following “starred” strings are ungrammatical because they do not present any patterns existing in English:

- Hamster durian eat immortal colorless

- Four-wheel in ice cream clothes

When the same words of these combinations are rearranged according to the English patterns, they become syntactically well-formed sentences, although they do not make much sense

It is obvious that speakers of language use a finite set of rules to produce and understand an infinite set of possible sentences, most of which are never produced or heard before It is the syntactic rules that determine the correct order of words in a sentence, which proves that “sentences are more than words placed one after another like beads on a string.”

Green.G.M (1989:5-6) said that “… principle of logic and laws of physics do not force the rules to be exactly as they are Rather at least some of the rules are arbitrary to some degree and by custom speakers act in conformity with them The issue never comes to consciousness, but using the language in a way that failed to observe the rules would greatly decrease the

likelihood of successful communication For example, there is no logical reason why English adjectives must go before the noun they modified as in French

On the other hand, the structural order has at least two horizontal directions which are opposite to each other These directions are determined

by the reactions between elements Moreover, the structural order reflects the characteristics of grammatical relations

A speaker linearizes the structural order into the linear order to show what he means So does the listener, he makes a transforms the linear order to structural order to hear

To sum up, the linear order and structural order have some points to be correlated to each other However, they are contradictory to some extents For

example, in the sentence: “He speaks very fast”, “speak” related to “very” and

“speak” related to “fast”, also

1.1.3 Marked and Unmarked Word Order

According to the Halliday (1985:110), markedness is a concept used by linguists to refer to departure from the norm

Markedness is correlated with the asymmetric relationship with a question: whether it belongs to phonology, morphology, syntax or semantics

In this asymmetry, the one which has the specialized elements is said to be marked, and the last one which is more general and complex is unmarked

In English, there are such sequences as:

SVO: The woman met the doctor

OVS: The guy in black I invited- not Marton

VSO: Only miss the sun when it starts to snow

OSV: Romantic films she likes watching most

SOV: A mother tigerpainful vigils keep

However, only the first of them is natural and usual The “unmarked” order in English considered as basic, dominant and frequent, the rest of used for special circumstances such as convey special effects of an emphatic and poetic kind which mentions the features of markedness as issues of frequency, regularity, normality, and forth, meaning strange, deviant, unexpected, unusual in a given context

In cases of word order, some word orders are lean toward literary,

poetic and emphatic than others For example: “Here the bus comes” is a stylistically marked usage of the unmarked “The bus comes here”

1.2 English Inversion

According to the Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992),

the word “Inversion” which dates back to the 16th century, has two origins in Latins and Greek In Latins, “inversion” can be seen as “inversion” or

“inversionis” which means “turning round” In Greek, its origin is

“anastrophe” which means “turning back” For instance, in English it is observed when certain kinds of questions are formed from statement, such as

“Is he singing”?formed from “He is singing” by inverting the order of “he is” Inversion is also used to emphasize or to mark priority and eminence

For example:

“So there came to the kitchen-window two white doves, and then some turtle-doves, and at last a crown of all the other birds under heaven, chirping and fluttering, and they alighted among the ashes, ……”

“The normal order in English is S + P and every case of the order P +

S is to be considered as a deviation, that is, as an inversion This has been the common view put forward in most grammars until recently.”

(The Structure of Modern English (2010:238)

For example, the sentence “At the end of the mountain stands a small village”comes from a normal order one: “A small village stands at the end of the mountain”

1.2.1 Sentence Elements

According to Quirk et al (1972:35-40), there are 5 elements of sentence structure which are normally obligatory: S (subject), V (verb), C (complement), O (object), A (Adverbial)

“Verb” can be divided into 2 main parts as follows:

The normal aim of the Subject is about “what is being discussed”, the

“theme” of the sentence, with the normal implication that something new is being said about a “subject” that has already been introduced in an earlier sentence Another feature is that S determines concord of person and number

with the verb phrase Elements which can be the S are a N or a NP or a clause with nominal function It occurs before the verb phrase in declarative sentences and right after the operator in interrogative one

The Object (direct or indirect) normally follows the subject and the verbs phrase It is a NP or a clause with nominal function By the passive transformation, it assumes the status of subject

Unlike the Object, the Complement does not become S through passive transformation It can be a NP, an Adjective phrase or a clause with nominal function It follows the subject, verb phrase and object

The Adverbial is an adverb, adverb phrase, adverbial clause, noun phrase or preposition one It is capable of occurring in more than one position

in the clause Besides it is optional, it maybe added to or removed from a sentence without affecting the acceptability of the sentence

There are 6 types of a sentence:

Marton was dancing

(iv) SVOC : S Vmonotrans Od

She went through the red light

(v) SVOC: S Vcomplex-trans Od Co

We have blamed him wrong

a fool

(vi) SVOA: S Vcomplex-trans OdAplace

She left the keyhouse under the vase

(vii) SVOO: S Vditrans Oi Od

Marton gave me a sweet kiss

The general picture is quite simple, there are:

A two-element pattern SV

Three three-element patterns SV + C/A/O

Three four-element patterns SVO + C/A/O

Many linguistics use the term “Predicator” (P) to refer to the verb

phrase as a sentence element Mr Eagleson (1983:78) said that: “Predicator is the term used to describe the function of the verb group in a clause” Besides,

it is used along with the other function terms, Subject (S), Complement (C), and Adverbial (A) to describe patterns of structure in clause:

Marton(S) is playing (P) football with his team (C) in the stadium(A)

Due to the aims of this thesis, the term “Predicator” is employed in

replacement of the word “Verb phrase” in A Grammar of Contemporary English(1972:62) As a result, these 7 types in the previous page can be

formulated as follow:

A two- element patterns SP

Three three-element patterns SP + C/A/O

Three four-element patterns SP + C/A/O

Buren.P.V (1974:282) states that: “It is logically impossible to engage

in contrastive analysis without postulating common categories of one sort or another since, more generally, it is logically impossible to compare any two entities without using the same frame of reference”

S,V,O,C,A are used to refer to sentence element

a Will she invite you to the party?

b Is she inviting you to the party?

c Did she invite you to the party?

d Has she invited you to the party?

e Has she been inviting you to the party?

f. Will she have invited you to the party?

Wh-questions are formed by the Q-element which comes first in the sentence Then there come the operator and the subject except when the Q-element is subject

How many dresses have you had?

Which song is going to be mentioned?

In negative statements, “not” is always placed after the operator or contracted with it:

a Ms Minh hasn’t/ has not engaged

b. Ms Minh would not/ wouldn’t have engaging

The operator is apart of predicator which consists one or more auxiliaries It is not used for forming question or negative sentences with

“not” if predicator without auxiliary

For example

- It snowed heavily all the season

Did it snow heavily all the season?

In some occasion, “BE” and “HAVE” can be predicator which can act like operators

Emphatic sentences: She did sing a very beautifully song

I do like this dress so much

Do be silent!

Tag questions: He hasn’t married yet, has he?

They didn’t want to join this party, did they?

She seems to love animals so much, doesn’t she?

Pro-forms: Minh failed the exams and so did her best friend

A : Why did you know my birthday?

B : Your father told me yesterday

A : Oh,,, uhm, of course he did

(Twilight saga– New moon)

Statements with inversion: After some lovelorn did she realize that family always is the most important to her life

Never have I seen such a beautiful mountain

In conclusion, operator plays an important role in syntactic function It

is normally the first auxiliary, stands independent of a complex predicator

1.2.3 Definition of English Inversion

Inversion is a syntactical phenomenon which is considered as a language universal, using in many other languages such as: English, French,

Russian, German, It has various functions and uses which are mentioned

in some definitions below:

According to Swan,M (1980:277), inverted words stand before the subject which can occur in questions or normal statements There are two main kinds of inversion with the auxiliary’s arrival before and after the subject If there is no auxiliary, “do, does, did” is added

For examples:

- Only before the test did she feel nervous

- Have my letters arrived yet?

- They like the opera and so do their children

In some sort occasion of inversion, the whole verb comes before the subject and auxiliaries are not used

For examples:

- At the corner stands a beautiful woman

- Does rushing to meet work deadlines before a break leave you more prone to coming down with an illness? said Claudia Hammond

Inversion is a rearrangement of subject and verb from normal order into

a new one to emphasize the meanings

For examples:

- Is she ok?

- Here is my most beautiful performance

- Only when he came home did he recognize someone broke into his house

There are many kinds of inversion such as:

- Subject- verb inversion:

Adverbial comes first then verb and subject:

- Outside the door comes a black woman

After direct speech:

- Are you ok? asked Bourney

- Subject-auxiliary inversion:

In questions: I’m sorry but what do you mean?

Has this building completed yet?

In addition with “so” and “neither/nor”

- She loves the band Backstreet boy and so does he

- I can’t eat fish and neither/nor my mother

After a negative phrase in front of position

- He didn’t know anything, should I ask for your help

In conditional clauses

- If you made this mistake, would you be dismissed?

- Subject- operator inversion:

- Not a second do I think of him

- She really interested in this concert And so am I

- Had it not been for the rain, we would have set up a party

- You are the only one who says no to bride Am I right?

- Under no circumstances do I have to pass the entrance exam to university

In a word, it can be divided into 2 main types of structure below:

- Subject-verb inversion:

SUBJECT VERB X X VERB SUBJECT

The bus comes here Here comes the bus

- Subject-operator inversion:

SUBJECT OPERATOR X X OPERATOR SUBJECT

He has never danced before Never has he danced before

The inversion of subject and operator is to emphasize the meaning in which a negative element stands at the first place of a sentence

For example:

- Under no circumstances do I have to pass the entrance exam to university

- Not a second do I think of him

- Only when he came home did he recognize someone broke into his house

From analysis above it is easily seen that inversion is mostly used in

questions, and after here, there, neither, nor and so; other uses in written

English or in a very formal style of speaking to emphasis or warn something Besides, inversion sometimes expresses the different meaning in a same sentence except its order

For example: “The bus is here.” and “Here’s the bus.”

In the first sentence, the meaning describes the bus itinerary, everyday like bus station, maybe the bus is coming but not now However, it is clear that the bus has just come, in front of us and we do not have to wait for it

In conclusion, there are many different definitions of inversion above, however they express or mention the same concept of English inversion which are going to be listed as follow:

- When inversion occurs means that the sentence‘s order is reversed with operator or predicator stands before subject

- There are 2 types of English inversion: operator and predicator

Subject There is always a special element occurring before operator and predicator like: Adverbial, Auxiliary, Initial element,…

- Inversion is used to emphasize the important idea of speakers, hence, it can cause the different meaning from the origin sentence

- Language in inversion is mostly formal which is used in written language or formal speech

1.2.4 Fronting and Inversion

1.2.4.1 End-focus and End-weight

In general, the first phrase in a sentence express familiar (or topical, or given or old, or presupposed or predictable, ) while phrase towards the end of

a sentence tend to denote the new or the main idea This is called the Old Information First Principle which mention the reciprocal principle End-focus The first phrase denotes the introduction of information while the second phrase denotes the new or most important idea should be placed towards the end

For example: “To die, sometimes you need only believe you are ill, then you can unwittingly ‘catch’ such fears would soon become terrifying consequences

Same as the End-focus, End-weight convey important things at the end

of a sentence in order not to be awkward and unbalanced The weight of an element can be defined in terms of length or syllables or complex grammar Besides, it still has some exceptions For example, stress sentence or information maybe expressed in the first phrase (beginning of a sentence) if they bear the main sentence stress On the other hand, in some End-weight cases, it depends on the length or contextual of sentence to make the intonation toward the end or the beginning

For examples

- Driving car so fast is one of his fantastic hobbies

- His fantastic hobbies is driving car so fast

1.24.2 Theme

Theme is a message transferring the main idea in a sentence There are many ways to achieve this The clause as a message consists of a Theme and a Rheme Besides Theme used to point the departure of the message, the remainder of the message-Rheme will develop the rest meaning of Theme

In the principal of End-focus and end– weight, the final position in a sentence is the most important On the other hand, the first position is important, also for the presentation of a message in sequence, because it expresses how the present interesting is and leads people to what they are going to present next In spoken or written English, the first position shows the Theme which denote its function

As in normal sentence, Theme denotes the message or the main idea of the clause, hence, the first position in a sentence belongs to Theme, rather than at the end or at some specific point

The adverbials in English can occur in more than one position in sentence and has no consideration rather than Theme of a clause However, in some special occasions, adverbials of place which has a close connection to

an intensive or intransitive predicator can be treated as marked Theme It will

be placed initially Besides, adverbials will occur in a sentence with subject is

a noun phrase

For example: In the restaurant were dancing an old couple

On the table we put a dish of beef

What is more, the unmarked or expected Theme of main clause is:

- Subject in a statement: She danced alone

- Operator in a yes-no question: Did she dance alone?

- Wh-question: Who did she dance with?

- Main verb in a command: Dance alone

In exclamation, the exclamatory Wh-element functions as Theme:

- What an interesting performance!

- How beautiful she is!

1.2.4.3 Fronting and Inversion

Fronted element in a clause is shown for thematic prominence, they will not assume the function of Theme, they become marked Themes Hence, these elements can be fronted nuclear stress and given special emphasis which usually happens in informal language

For example:

- A very cute cake he made right in front of my eyes

- Happiness they cried

Moreover, marked theme is used to strengthen a contrast between two elements of a parallelism which usually occurs in rhetorical or heightened language

For example

Od as Theme:

- Intelligence he has , hardworking he has not

- Money he has but truly friend he has not

Some others used in formal language such as a written one :

to end- focus Sometime it becomes a starting point also

It is found out that there is a difference between front with and without inversion by Chalker (1984:19) They are mentioned in the table below:

Table 1.1: Difference between fronted element with and without inversion

Jeff Hardy his name is

Death of Paul Walker I cannot believe

In the middle of the street, the police controls the traffic

Forget her I couldn’t, although I always tried

Just as serious is the accident on the street

Something will I do for him

In the middle of the street does the police control the traffic

Throwing the hammer here

is champion William Anderson, who, when he’s not winning prizes, is a hard-working shepherd in the Highlands of Scotland

There are many other exploitations of inversion collected by Green

- Inversion structure puts a subject noun phrase at the final position to focus new information This help the writer introduce a new discourse element

For example: In a cottage lived a happy poor couple

- An inversion with a fronted phrase referring to a previously implied referent to show the relation between the information following and the previous discourse Moreover, the initial element is explicitly anaphoric to denote the previously mentioned referent in a implicit way

For example: At the end of summer is hot weather

- Inversion is also used to resolve some enigmatic in a narrative by describing an event or locative relationship

For example: The soul is but a vast ocean of vigilance

Streaming with increscent colors towards life

Infinite within its perihelion possibilities

Relentlessly searching, betwixt the ever flowing tides (John Rhinem, Percivals Promise)

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”

(from “ The Mermaid”, anonymous)

The first poem “Percival’s Promise” of John Rhinem shows the definition or some theory to prove that “the soul is but a vast ocean of vigilance” Next, “The Mermaid” shares the luckless of the woman with the

readers by inversion structure

In a word, sometimes it is necessary to use inversion in order to emphasize an important news or idea Besides, inversion can impress the reader by reversing their expectation about some thing’s event For instance,

the predicator “spoken up” stood before the subject “the captain” to stand out his statement, whereas the normal order is “the captain spoken up of our gallant ship” which comes along with unimpressive sentence

1.3 Types of Sentences according to Communicative Functions

According to Quirk et al (1972:385), there are four major syntactic

divisions of simple sentences which use correlates with different communicative functions:

1 A symbolic sentence with subject stands before predicator:

- Louis goes to work by bus every day

2 Questions are sentences marked by one or more of these three criteria

- Operator stands before the subject:

Does Louis go to work by bus every day?

- Wh-questions:

Who goes to work by bus every day?

- The “question” intonation:

Louis goes to work by bus every day?

3 Command sentences are used to express a sentence without subject or

no overt grammatical subject, whose the predicator is in the imperative mood

Excepting for one subject “You”

- Close the door!

- You close the door!

- Don’t you close the door!

Because this type of sentence is a command sentence, it will not have politeness word in a sentence such as “please” or “favor” A third person subject is possible in this kind of command:

- Someone close the door

- Don’t anyone close the door

As you can see from the examples above, the uncontracted form “do

not” cannot be used in such negative commands as “Do not you close the door” and “Do not anyone close the door”

There are many tag questions such as “will you”, “can you” followed in commands sentences:

- Turn off the light, can/will/could/would you?

4 Exclamations sentences which have an initial phrase start with exclamation word like “what” or “how”, generally without inversion of subject and operator

- What a beautiful lie

- How nice he is!

- For a thousand time have I loved you!

- What a noisy city!

In conclusion, there are many formulae in the sense that although they may have the appearance of belonging to one of the major classes, they do not mention the same meaning of a common one For instance, we say “how are you”, it does not mean only ask about the health, but also the greeting

According to Swan, M (1980:277), Eagleson et al (1983:61) and Eastwood (1994:54) all agree that there are 2 types of inversion in English, they are subject-operator inversion and subject-predicator inversion In the next chapter, these types of inversion are going to be classified and analyzed

CHAPTER 2: CONCRETE CASES OF ENGLISH INVERSION 2.1 Subject-Operator Inversion

2.1.1 In Question

In terms of word order, all questions in English usually “have inversion”, which means the subject and the first verb of the predicate change places Besides, there is normally inversion of the first auxiliary or modal, calling the operator or Op and the subjects

Questions are primarily used to request the listener to supply the missing information on a specific point Hence, we divide questions into three main classes according to the type of answer they expect:

- Yes-no questions: The answer must be “yes” or “no”, depending on the information conveyed

- Tag questions and exclamatory questions: Which are special types of Yes-no questions, including subject-operator inversion in their formation

- Wh-questions: The answer is to supplying the missing information required by the questions

- Alternative questions: Expect an answer with one or two or more alternatives mentioned in the question

2.1.1.1 In Yes-no questions

2.1.1.1.1 In Yes-no questions

This type of question is formed by placing the operator before the subject, using the rising intonation The statements with “Be”, “Have” and modal verbs can be turned into Yes-no questions by inversion of subject and operator They sometimes count as operator even when they occur as full predicator, so that the whole predicator is placed in front of the subjects which arementioned in the following examples

A BE

He is a football player Is he a football player?

This is a really hot problem Is this a really hot problem?

B HAVE

He has written her recently Has he written her recently?

They have got their car Have they got their car?

She has been waiting long Has she been waiting long?

C MODALS

Marton can play football Can Marton play football?

She will marry him Will she marry him?

It can be seen from these examples above that “Be” and “Have” are full

predicator However, if a statement contains a straightforward present tense or

past tense predicator without an operator, “Do…?, Does…? Or “Did….?” is

introduced to this kind of questions such as:

DO: You study French Do you study French?

DOES: Marton goes to Local bar tonight Does Marton go to Local bar

tonight?

DID: She arrived to the train station on time Did she arrive to the train

station on time?

1.1.1.1.2 In Negative Yes-no questions

Table 2.1: Examples of negative yes-no question

Negative Full Form Negative short form

BE Is he not a teacher?

Are they not happy?

Was he not pleased with the service?

Isn’t he a teacher?

Aren’t they happy?

Wasn’t he pleased with the service?

HAVE

Have they not finished?

Has she not completed her study?

Haven’t they finished?

Hasn’t she completed her study?

DO

DOES

DID

Do they not buy it?

Does she not love him?

Did he not say goodbye to her?

Don’t they buy it?

Doesn’t she love him?

Didn’t he say goodbye to her?

MODALS Can you not drive a car?

Will he not join the party?

Can’t you drive a car?

Won’t he join the party?

There is a indisputable that “not” will come right after the operator if the S is a noun

For example

- Do hamster not eat melon seeds?

Besides, the negative full form is rather formal, whereas the negative short form (with the enclitic negative particle “not”) is usually preferred in informal spoken English In Negative questions, it is used to emphasis something special such as:

- The anger: Have I not told you again and again to switch off the light when you are out?

- Questions not requiring an answer: Can’t you see that I love you more than everything I have?

- An expected Yes answer: Don’t you remember that we had a great time

in Budapest?

- When the speaker wants to see a surprise or disbelief: Can’t you swim?

- When the speaker wants to convince the listener: Won’t you help me ?

- When the speaker wants to criticize or express the anger: Can’t you shut your mouth up?

2.1.1.1.3 In Tag Questions

A tag question is a short one used to reconfirm the information from the speaker to the listener It was divided from the rules below:

- The tag question consists of operator + subject (a enclitic negative particle

preceding the subject, a full particle following it) in the order: is he?, isn’t she?, didn’t they? …

- When the statement without operator, use is made of do/does/did as for question formation in general: I think I know you, do i?

- The subject of this type question is a Pronoun which repeats or appropriately

substitutes for the subject of the statement

- There is a change of form from negative to positive between the origin

statement and the tag one, and inversion

- The tone of the tag occurs on the auxiliary and rising or falling Depending on the way you speak, it is not only an expected yes-no question from the

listener, but also convey more like anger, surprise, interest and so on……

For example:

- She likes this dress, doesn’t she? ( the tone is up)

(Expecting a Yes answer- confirmation)

- She doesn’t like this dress, does she? ( the tone is up)

(Expressing a surprise that “she doesn’t like the dress”)

- She doesn’t like this dress, does she? ( the tone is down)

(Expressing the disappointment that “she doesn’t like the dress”)

- He went out without turning off the light, didn’t he?

(Meaning “did he still leave the light on when he was out?)

- They didn’t leave the door open, did they?

(Expressing a hope that “They close the door” )

In addition, there are two more types of tag questions which are less

usual, they are: Positive + Positive; Negative + Negative

a Positive + Positive

- The answer is inferred or recalled what has been said from the question,

which is preceded by “oh” or “so”

For example:

- So, this dress is the most suitable for you, isn’t it?

- Ending a tag question with a rising tone sometimes requires the more

information from the speaker, expressing friendly interest

For example:

- So, Louis is going to apply a job which far away from her, is he?

(give me more information)

- The tag questions also express some others feeling like suspicion,

disapproval, disappointment and even threat

For example: I will get the gold medal, will I? (suspicion)

He forgot to pick me up, did he? ( disappointment)

I will kill you, will I? (threaten)