Compositional patterns of syntactical arrangement. Stylistic inversion

I. Questions and Tasks

1. What is the nature of stylistic inversion?

2. Is the inversion regarded as a violation of norms of the English language?

3. What are the wide spread patterns of inversion? Enumerate them giving examples.

4. Where are the emotionally dominating elements of the utterance placed in employing stylistic inver­sion?

5. Does any change of word order change the syntac­tical relations and the meaning of the sentence?

6. State the difference between inversion in interro­gative and affirmative sentences.

7. What is the main stylistic function of the stylistic inversion?

8. For what sake is the inversion employed in poetry? Give examples of all the cases.

Detached Constructions

Sometimes one of the secondary parts of the sentence is placed so that it seems formally independent of the word it logically refers to. Such parts of structures are called detached. But a detached phrase cannot rise to the rank of primary 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 isolation is achieved with the help of stress, commas, dash and even a full stop. In oral speech it is achieved with the help of intonation. From grammatical point of view these secondary parts are closely connected with the primary parts of the sentence:

1. He did not answer, and sickly white, she jumped up. (W. Thackeray)

2. For an instant she apprehended him there, pale, awkward, strong.

Detached constructions stand close to inversion and ellipsis:

"Nightmares troubled him, waking and sleeping."
Different parts of the sentence may be detached. So

1. An attribute may be detached from its head noun:

"Val sought the misty freedom of Green street, reckless and depressed." (J. Galsworthy)

2. An adverbial modifier can also be detached:

"Sir Pitt came in first, very much flushed, and rather unsteady in his gait".

Detached construction breaks the ordinary word order in the English sentence and in this way isolates the secon­dary parts of the sentences. This isolated part, bringing independence to words and word combinations, becomes stylistically significant:

"She admired her husband, strong, brave and victorious". (W. Thackeray)

Detached constructions give prominence to some words and help the author to draw the reader's attention to a certain detail or circumstance or help the auflior to em­phasize his emotional attitude towards what he describes.

The stylistic function of this construction is to bring emphasis to the idea expressed in the detached part and thus, to make the image and description brighter and more emotional.