Word order

WO is one of the main means of marking the relationship of words in the sentence.

WO has three main functions:

1. the grammatical (formal) function – in this function WO marks the relationship words in a sentence or serves to generate a certain syntactic structure (in interrogative sentences)

2. the communicative function – in this function a certain WO pattern serves to bring out the communicative structure of the sentence: Then came the day of our meeting!

3. The expressive (the emphatic, the stylistic) function – in this function the WO pattern serves to mark the communicative center and at the same time it makes the utterance more expressive. (Terrible was the night!)

The main difference between English and Russian is that in Russian the main function of WO is the communicative function, in English – the grammatical function – each member of the sentence in English has a fixed position.

There are certain recommendations in arranging secondary members of the sentence:

1. as far as the adverbial modifiers are concerned their position depends on the function, on their communicative value, on the way they are expressed and on the rhythm.

The most frequent are: an adverbial of manner, time, place, and purpose.

The closest to the predicate is usually an adverbial of manner, it may even precede the predicate if it’s not the communicative center (He moved slowly down the rails – He slowly moved)

An adverbial of time follows an adverbial of place, it either opens the sentence or closes it, except for adverbial of indefinite time, which may be placed between the subject and the predicate.

An adverbial of purpose is placed either at the very end or at the very beginning of the sentence.

If there are homogeneous adverbials, their position depends on the degree of particularization (detalization): the one that is more detailed comes first, the one that is more general in meaning comes next.

2. There are some peculiarities in arranging attributes:

If we consider the arranging of attributes in relation to their noun, we find that there are several groups, considering the left hand distribution:

• the closest to the noun: attributes expressing material, nationality, style

• age, temperature, measurements, colour (paralelly)

• adjectives, expressing some subjective impression, quality

• determinatives (articles, demonstrative pronounce, nouns in the Possessive case, indefinite pronounce)

e.g. a curious little green horse

a cup of delicious hot china tea

There are some instances when the attributes have the same meaning: several attributes may be synonyms either as dictionary units or textual synonyms (contextual synonyms)

e.g. a long boring technical lecture

a nasty dirty industrial town

There are two main word order patterns:

• direct WO, when the subject precedes the predicate.

• indirect WO / inversion when the predicate or at least part of it precedes the subject.

Structurally inversion may be full or partial:

• by full inversion we mean cases when the whole of the predicate precedes the subject

(Then came the day of our meeting)

• partial inversion is a case when part of the predicate precedes the subject (in questions: Do you know him?)

According to the main function of the WO in general we distinguish 3 main functions of inversion:

1. grammatical/formal

2. communicative/semantic

3. expressive

1. grammatical/formal inversion occurs in questions and in sentences like:

May you be happy!

2. communicative/semantic inversion occurs

a) in sentences with “there is/there are” (e.g. There is a book on the table!)

b) elliptical sentences beginning with “so”, “neither”, “nor” (e.g. So do I! Neither do I!)

c) in sentences, beginning with an adverbial of time and place (Then came the day of our wedding! Far ahead stretched the fields covered with snow!)

The inversion of this type is restricted:

• it occurs mostly (only) with the verb in the indicative mood

• the meaning of the verb: usually it is a verb denoting position, motion or change of position

d) inversion of the predicate which is the theme (Completely absent throughout the book is the role and action of the forces)

3. expressive /emphatic / stylistic inversion occurs

   1. in sentences beginning with a secondary member of the sentence which has a negative or restrictive meaning (never, only, hardly, in vain, little, not a sound) E.g. Never in my life had I seen such a beautiful lady! Not a sound did he utter!

   2. inversion of a predicative which is the theme, the communicative center: Terrible was the night!

   3. Inversion of a predicative part in clauses of concession and reason: Tired as he was, he went on working!

   4. Inversion in the structure of a phrasal verb, when the adverbial part comes first: In came Mr. Pickwick. Up flew the rocket.

Inversion is full when the subject is expressed by a noun; inversion is partial when the subject is expressed by a pronoun

In he came

= There is Mr. Pickwick. There he is.

Up it flew

The same with the clauses of reason and concession.

5. inversion in clauses of unreal condition which is possible with the verbs “should, were, could, had”

E.g. Should he be out, call me at once. Were he one of our team, the experiment would have been a success. Had he been there, he would have helped them.