rearranging basic sentence structures.

1. Syn
tax
Advanced Syntax: Rearranging the
basic sentence structures
Kashma Sardar Ali
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2. Sentence Complexity
D) Anticipatory it
It is a pity that they cancelled the party.
C) Pseudo-cleft Sentences
Similar purpose but the emphasis on the last part. What I want is a good sleep.
B) Cleft Sentence
The sentence is divided into two parts to give one part the greater
importance
It was Thomas Adison who invented electric lamb.
A) There- Structure
There is put in the subject position, and subject
moves to the end.
There is no one outside.
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3. Rearranging the basic structures
There are three types of drastic rearrangement:
A. cleft sentences (it)
B. sentences with extraposed subjects (that- clause replaced by it)
C. existential sentences (there)
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4. cleft sentences
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Cleft construction is a complex sentence structure consisting of a matrix clause and a relative clause.
The notion of cleft construction has been defined in rigorous ways. Quirk et al, (1985: 89) define the cleft sentence as one
of the grammatical means similar to and associated with information focus, it enables the user to select (with in limits)
which element of the sentence will be highlighted. The cleft sentence consists of two (main) parts; an initial focal element,
followed by a background structure which is similar to relative clause.
For Chalker (1984: 260) and Crystal (1990: 210) the cleft sentence is used to emphasize a certain element of a sentence
which often starts with an introductory “IT” followed by “BE” with the result of a complex sentence (with two finite verbs).
Similarly, Lambrech (2002: 1) looks at the cleft construction as a complex sentence construction consisting of matrix clause
and a relative clause.
As for Swan (1996: 114) and Eastwood and Mackin (1989: 193), they state that we can emphasize particular words and
expressions putting every thing into a kind of relative clause except the words we want to emphasize.
*Here are some examples which illustrate what has been mentioned.
-1. John brought his new car last night. (SVOA). (The subject, object and the adverbial) can be emphasized.
respectively by using the cleft construction.
2. It was John who brought his new car last night.
3. It was his new car that john brought last night.
4. It was last night that John brought his new car.

6. Extraposed subjects
• The linguistic phenomenon of shifting the real subject from its normal position to the end and the position is
replaced by so-called anticipatory, dummy or introductory “it” in the initial position.
• An extraposed subject is sometimes called a postponed subject.
• It happens when the real subject is an infinitive clause, gerund, or subordinate clause.
❖That anything can be felt is hard. It is hard that anything can be felt.
❖To travel alone is fun It is fun to travel alone.
❖Being alone and Walking through the wood is dangerous It is dangerous being alone and walking through
the wood.
❖How she escaped remains a mystery It remains a mystery how she escaped

7. Existential Sentences
• In English grammar, an existential sentence is a sentence that asserts the existence or nonexistence of
something. For this purpose, English relies on constructions introduced by There (known as the
"existential there").
• The verb most often used in existential sentences is a form of be, though other verbs (e.g., exist, occur)
may follow the existential there
• “whether or not a word like there is used to introduce them [i.e. existential sentences] the verb precedes
the subject and the latter is hardly treated as a real subject” (Jespersen 1924: 155).
• Examples and Observations:
• "There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness."
• (Friedrich Nietzsche, "On Reading and Writing," Thus Spoke Zarathustra)

8. • "In the great green room,
There was a telephone
And a red balloon
And a picture of--
The cow jumping over the moon."
(Margaret Wise Brown, Goodnight, Moon, 1947)
• "By using there as a dummy subject, the writer or speaker can delay introducing the real subject of the
sentence. There is called a dummy subject, because it has no meaning in itself--its function is to put the real
subject in a more prominent position."

9. • The term existential sentence is an attempt to capture the meaning conveyed by the following type of construction:
• There's a strange cat in the garden
• There were lots of people in town.
• There weren't any apples on the tree.
• There appeared a bright star in the sky.
The word there comes first. It is then followed by the simple present or past tense of be, or a small range of
'presentational' verbs, such as: appear, arise, ascend, come, emerge, erupt, exist, float, occur, spring up, stand.
The noun phrase following the verb is usually indefinite, as shown by such words as a, an and any...
• "What the there construction does is highlight a clause as a whole, presenting it to the listener or reader as if
everything in it is a new piece of information. It gives the entire clause a fresh status. In this respect, existential
sentences are very different from the other ways of varying information structure, which focus on individual
elements inside a clause."

11. *************************************************************************************
• Left dislocation
In left dislocation, an introductory noun phrase is not integrated into the sentence structure and a pronoun appears in the
position that the noun phrase might have occupied: left dislocation is like clefting: it can be used to emphasize or define a
topic.
1. Nuclear reactors they are not environmentally friendly
Right dislocation:
In the right dislocation, the noun phrase appears at the end.
*Right dislocation often occurs with a clarifying afterthought: For example,
1. They've got a pet rabbit, Mary and Peter.
-They have got a pet rabbit is a coherent sentence, but Mary and Peter is added afterward to clarify exactly who they are.
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12. • Left Dislocation
• * Syntactic background
• LD is characterized by an initial NP (NP,) followed by an expression containing an NP (NP,) which is coreferential
with it.
• The following constructions constitute examples of Left Dislocations (LDs):
• (1) Jerry, he’s been working here for years.
• (2) Jerry, I don’t see him, at all.
• (3) “Him,, Jerry ’s been working here for years.
• (4) “Him,, I don’t see Jerry, at all.

13. • Right Dislocation:
• Background:
• The following sentences constitute instances of Right Dislocation (RD):
1. He, is here, Jimi.
2. I don’t like them, at all, the COP
3. A: I asked you to read this book for today.
B: I know. 1 tried to very hard, but I was quite busy. Incidentally, it is much too difficult for me, this book.
*In both RD and LD there is another NP elsewhere in the construction that bears a predictable relationship to NP, - it is
coreferential with it.

14. Inversion
In Old English, cases of subject-verb inversion can regularly be found when some other constituent is fronted (cf. e.g. van Kemenade 1987,
Pintzuk 1999). This is illustrated in (1) (fronted constituent in brackets, finite verb in bold print, subject in italics). The OE data used below are
taken from The York-Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Prose (henceforth YCOE; Taylor et al. 2003).
A. And [egeslice] spæc Gregorius be ðam … (WHom_10c:48.866)
And sternly spoke Gregorius about that
‘And Gregorius spoke sternly about that …’
*Some additional examples,
1) [Across the river] lived seven dwarfs.
2) e. [Now] comes the time to make peace.
3) f. [Thus] ended his story.
4) g. [In the year 1748] died one of the most powerful of the new masters of India.
• Object inversion:
• [gif he hine forsyhð], his sawul sceal þrowian þæt ylce wite (ÆHom_21:291.3223)
1. if he him scorns, his soul must endure the same punishment
2. ‘If he scorns him, his soul must endure the same punishment.’

16. • There are two kinds of inversion, which result from the fronting of a sentence constituent:
• 1) subject-verb inversion
- We are not celebrating anything,' said the woman in the chair.
- She is really smart. Isn't she?
• 2) subject-operator inversion: Subject-operator inversion is common in questions. Otherwise, it mainly occurs
when negative expressions are fronted. The conjunctive adverbs nor and neither, and the additive adverb so
introduce a clause:
-Was she sleeping in my room?
- Did you broke your leg?
- No more did they speak of the importance of reducing public expenditure.
- Never were slaves so numerous as in Italy during the first century B.C
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17. Exchanged positions
The direct object may follow the object predicative if the object is long, so that of direct object and
object predicative
• the SVOP structure changes to a SVPO order:
- Let me first make certain important points clear on which I have no disagreement with my right
honorable friend.
Let me first make clear certain important points on which I have no disagreement
with my right honorable friend.
- We considered this person honest on the basis that she never lies to anyone.
We considered honest this person on the basis that she never lies to anyone.
- I made my decision clear which is going back to U.S tomorrow early in the morning.
I made clear my decision which is going back to U.S tomorrow early in the morning.
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