48. Inversion, Detachment, Parenthesis.

Word order is a crucial syntactical problem in many languages. The most conspicuous places in the sentence are considered to be the first and the last: the first place because the full force of the stress can be felt at the beginning of an utterance and the last place because there is a pause after it. This traditional word order has developed a definite intonation design. Through frequency of repetition this design has imposed itself on any sentence even though there are changes introduced in the sequence of the component parts. Hence there occurs clash between semantically insignificant elements of the sentence when they are placed in structurally significant position and the intonation which follows the recognized pattern. Unlike grammatical inversion stylistic inversion does not change the structural meaning of the sentence, that is, the change in the juxtaposition of the members of the sentence does not indicate structural meaning but has some super structural function. Stylistic inversion aims at attaching logical stress or additional emotional colouring to the surface meaning of the utterance. Stylistic inversion in Modern English should not be regarded as a violation of the norms of Standard English. 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 (Talent Mr. Micawber has; capital Mr. Micawber has not) 2. The attribute is placed after the word it modifies (With fingers weary and worn…) 3. The predicative is placed before the subject (A good generous prayer it was) or 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 feel I fall) 5. Both modifier and predicate stand before the subject (Down dropped the breeze…). Inversion as a stylistic device is always sense-motivated. Inverted word order is one of the forms of what are known as emphatic constructions. Sometimes one of the secondary parts of the sentence by some specific consideration of the writer is placed so that it seems formally independent of the word it logically refers to. Such parts of structures are called detached. They seem isolated. The detached part, being torn away from its referent, assumes a great degree of significance and is given prominence by intonation. The most frequent structural patterns are those in which an attribute or an adverbial modifier is placed not in immediate proximity to its referent, but in some other position. (Steyne rose up, grinding his teeth, pale, and with fury in his eyes) Sometimes a nominal phrase is thrown into the sentence as a detached construction. The essential quality of a detached construction lies in the fact that the isolated parts represent a kind of independent whole placed in a position which will make the phrase (or word) seem independent. But a detached phrase cannot rise to the rank of a primary member of the sentence – it always remains secondary from the semantic point of view, although structurally it possesses all the features of a primary member. This clash of the structural and semantic aspects of detached constructions produces the desired effect - forcing the reader to interpret the logical connections between the component parts of the sentence. Logical ties between them always exist in spite of the absence of syntactical indicators. Detached constructions may be called a peculiar device bridging the norms of written and spoken language. (In the latter the relation between the component parts is effectively materialized by means of intonation). This stylistic device is akin to inversion. Their functions are almost the same but detached constructions produce a much stronger effect. In the English language detached constructions are generally used in the belles-lettres prose style and mainly with words that have some explanatory function. A variant of a detached construction is parenthesis. It is a qualifying, explanatory or appositive word, phrase, clause, sentence, or other sequence which interrupts a syntactic construction without affecting it, having often a characteristic intonation and indicated in writing by commas, brackets, or dashes. Parenthesis sometimes embodies a considerable volume of predicativeness, thus giving the utterance an additional nuance of meaning or a tinge of emotional colouring.