Stylistic and grammatical inversion

Word order is a crucial syntactic problem in many languages. In English it has "tolerably fixed word order", according to Jasperson: subject + predicate + object [Talent he has, capital he has not] - here the effect of inverted word order is backed up by antithesis and parallel construction. Unlike grammatical invertion, stylistic inversion doesn't change the structural meaning of the sentense in an utterance, but has some structural function. Stylistic inversion aimes at attaching logical stress or additional emotional colouring to the surface meaning of the utterance. Thus, a specific intonation patternis an inevitable satellite of inversion. Stylistic inversion isn't a violation of norms of Standard English. It is a practical realization of what is otential in the language itself.

Patterns:

· the object is placed at the beginning of a sentence

· the attributes is placed after the word it modifies (post-position, used when three or more attributes) [with fingers weary and worn].

· the predicative is placed before the subject [A good generous prayer it was]

· the predicative stands before the linkword and both are placed before the subject [Rude am I in my speech]

· adverbial modifyer is placed at the beginning of the sentense [Eagerly I wished the morrow]

· both modifyer and predicate stand before the subject [In went Mr. Rickwick. Down dropped the breethe]

Those five models comprise the most common and recognized models of inversions but in modern English and American poetry there is a tendency to experiment with the word order which make the language intelligible. Inversion as a stylistic device is always sense-motivated. There's a tendency to account for inversion in poetry by rhythmical or considerations, which may be true but lacks one point that talented poets will never sacrifice sense for form. Inverted word order is one of the forms of what are known as emphatic constructions.

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