Emphatic structures
Fronting and inversion
DEFINITIONS:
Fronting: this is when we start a sentence with
sth (i.e. a complement of be or an adverbial
of place or direction) that is not the subject:
Up jumped the cat.
Inversion: this is when the word order in a
statement is not the typical subject + verb, but
auxiliary + subject + verb:
Never did I stop loving you.
Fronting and inversion
USES:
We use fronting and inversion:
1. Because we want to emphasize what we put
at the beginning of the sentence
2. In formal texts
Fronting
Structure:
FRONTED/EMPHASIZED ELEMENT + VERB + SUBJECT:
Here comes the doctor.
When the subject is a personal pronoun, we keep
the usual word order (fronted + subject+ verb):
Here he comes. (Not: Here comes he).
We dont use DO:
The cat jumped up. >
Up did jump the cat Up jumped the cat.
Fronting
Uses:
We find the word order FRONTED ELEMENT + VERB + SUBJECT:
When the complement of be is fronted:
His speciality is Andalucian gastronomy.
Andalucian gastronomy is his speciality.
A beach hut is standing on the sand.
Standing on the sand is a beach hut.
When an adverbial of place, direction or time is fronted:
An old woman was behind the desk. >
Behind the desk was an old woman. (place)
Joan walked into the room. >
Into the room walked Joan. (direction)
The scouts came first.
First came the scouts. (time)
Inversion
Structure:
EMPHASIZED ELEMENT + AUXILIARY + SUBJECT + VERB
When the sentence does not contain an
auxiliary verb, we use a form of do:
We rarely visit that part of the town.
Rarely do we visit that part of the town.
Emphasized el. aux subject verb
Inversion
Uses:
We find the word order EMPHASIZED ELEMENT + AUXIL. + SUBJECT + VERB:
Created by:
Carmen Luisa Prez Amaro