Учебно-методический комплекс по учебной дисциплине «стилистика» для специальности «современные иностранные языки (перевод)»

 
LECTURE 4 
 
SYNTACTICAL MEANS TO ENHANCE THE EXPRESSIVENESS OF SPEECH 

Inversion and its structural variety. Expressive and functional stylistic coloring of 
inversion. Typical cases of inversion. 
 
Inversion
is an independent SD in which the direct word order is changed either 
completely so that the predicate (predicative) precedes the subject; or partially so that the 
object precedes the subject-predicate pair. 
Inverted word-order, or inversion, is one of the forms of what are known as emphatic 
constructions. It consists in placing a part of the sentence into an unusual initial position for 
the purpose of emphasis, e.g. 
My account you can trust
(J.Barnes). 
Stylistic inversion
is such a change of word-order which gives logical stress or emotional 
colouring to the language units placed in an unusual syntactic position. Stylistic inversion 
deals with the rearrangement of the normative word order. Questions may also be 
rearranged: "
Your mother is at home?"
asks one of the characters of J. Baldwin's novel. 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. Interrogative constructions 
with the direct word order may be viewed as cases of two-step (double) inversion: direct 
w/o —» grammatical inversion —» direct w/o. 
Stylistic inversion is typical of the predicate, predicative and all the secondary parts of 
the sentence: 
In came Jack, (predicate)
Insolent Connor's conduct was. (predicative)
Little chances Benny had. (direct object)
To her family Martha gives all her time, (indirect object).
A horrible death Douglas died, (cognate object)
This is a letter congratulatory, (attribute)
To the disco Hilda went, (adverbial modifier)

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The following patterns of stylistic inversion are most frequently met in both English 
prose and English poetry. 
1. The object is placed at the beginning of the sentence. 
2. The attribute is placed after the word it modifies, e.g. 
With fingers weary and worn.
3. The predicate is placed before the subject, e.g. 
A good generous prayer it was.
4. The adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence. E.g. 
My dearest 
daughter, at your feet I fall.
5. Both modifier and predicate stand before the subject, e.g. 
In went Mr. Pickwick
Correspondingly, we differentiate between