Inversion, detached constructions and elliptical constructions

Stylistic inversion. The direct word-order in English is: Subject-Predicate-Object combination, it points unmistakably at the subject of the sentence.

Stylistic inversion breaks the order of words in the sentence but doesn’t change its grammatical meaning. The logical message remains the same. The emphatic character of the sentence is increased. In the inverted word order the emphasized members of the sentence are usually placed in the position with a full force of the stress on them. Most frequently emphasized members are: Predicates, Objects, and Adverbial modifiers including, so-called post-positions. Ex.: “Unmistakably she had once been young, pretty she could never have been.” “Do try this. Beautiful those donkeys were.”

In Stylistic inversion the direct word order is changed either completely so that predicate precedes the subject or partially so that the object precedes the subject-predicate pair. Ex: Never had Henry Pootel-Piglet run so fast as he ran then. (A. Miln)

Stylistic inversion aims at emphasis, vividness of narration, dynamic effect, expressiveness, rhythm and other purposes. The truth of it is evident: “Rude am I in my speech”. The SD of inversion is more typical of the English language than of the Russian language.

We should remember that the stylistic device of inversion should not be confused with grammatical inversion which is a norm in interrogative construction: Is he still hesitating? Questions may also be rearranged: Ex. "Your mother is at home?" (J. Baldwin). In this case the inverted question presupposes the answer with more certainty than the normative one. It is the assuredness of the speaker of the positive answer that constitutes additional information which is brought into the question by the inverted word order.

Stylistic inversion aims at attaching logical stress or additional emotional coloring to the surface meaning of the utterance. Therefore a specific intonation pattern is the inevitable satellite of inversion

Stylistic inversion in Modern English is the practical realization of what is potential in the language itself.

The following patterns of stylistic inversion are most frequently met in both English prose and poetry:

1. The object is placed at the beginning of the sentence: “ Talent Mr. Micawber has; capital Mr. Micawber has not.”

2. The attribute is placed after the word it modifies. This model is often used when there is more than one attribute: “With fingers weary and worn …”

3. The predicative is placed before the subject: “ A good generous prayer it was”

The predicative stands before the link verb and both are placed before the subject: “Rude am I in my speech…”

4. The adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence: “My dearest daughter, at your feet I fall.”

5. Both modifier and predicate stand before the subject: “ Down dropped the breeze…”

Detached construction. A specific arrangement of sentence members is observed in detachment, a stylistic device based on singling out a secondary member of the sentence with the help of punctuation (intonation). The detached member of the sentence is isolated from the word it’s logically connected with. Its position in the sentence and punctuation marks signify a pause and give the detached members the full force of predication. The word-order here is not violated, but secondary members obtain their own stress and intonation because they are detached from the rest of the sentence by commas, dashes or even a full stop as in the following cases: " He had been nearly killed, ingloriously, in a jeep accident. " (I. Shaw.) She, all resisting, smiled into his eyes. The most frequent cases of detached constructions are attributes and adverbial modifiers. Sometimes the isolation is so complete that a word syntactically connected with the sentence is separated into an independent sentence.

Ex.: "I have to beg you for money. Daily. " (S. Lewis)

Beautiful lady. Going to kidnap us.

Elliptical construction (ellipsis). Elliptical construction is a deliberate omission of at least one member of the sentence that can easily be supplied from the situation or previous statement.

Ellipsis is a typical phenomenon in conversation arising out of the situation. Ellipsis, when used as a SD, always imitates the common features of colloquial language where the situation presupposes the omitting certain member of a sentence: “Oh!” said Tigger. He sat down and put his paw in his mouth. “What’s the matter?” asked Pooh. “Hot!” mumbled Tigger (A. Miln)

Ex. – Did you date her?

- This was a he. Called himself Rudi Wilson. Know him?

- Each of them had gazed over the other and registered the result. Suzy’s note:

“Smart and mean. Smiles with his mouth. Eyes like a snake. May try himself some day by being so smart”

Patron’s note: “A character. Will not play the rules. Too friendly. Might reserve the filed”

An elliptical construction in direct interaction is not a SD. When used in the written language this violation of the recognized literary sentence structure becomes a SD, inasmuch it supplies supersegmental information (i.e. an excited state of mind of the speaker, it helps to imitate conversational style.