Grammar for advanced learners All every whole - Thấm Tâm Vy

Thẩm Tâm Vy, July 5th, 2019 EMPHATIC STRUCTURES AND INVERSLON

GRAMMAR FOR ADVANCED LEARNERS (5)

Emphatic Structures and Inverslon We often emphasise a particular part of a sentence, perhaps to contradict what someone else has said or for dramatic effect. ln speech we can do this with stress and intonation alone, but we can also do this by changing the position of elements in a sentence in speech and in writing. ln this unit we look at the ways we can manipulate grammar to emphasise something, by splitting one sentence into two parts (cleft sentences) or by bringing the element we want to emphasise to the beginning (fronting).

CLEFT SENTENCES 1. Cleft means divided. In a cleft sentence, information which could be given in one clause is divided into two parts, each with its own verb: - Vanessa has made the greatest impact. (normal sentence: single clause, one verb) - It is Vanessa | who has made the greatest. (cleft sentence: two clauses, two verbs) This gives extra emphasis to part of the sentence. We often use this pattern to emphasise some piece of new information, to give explanations or to make a contrast with a previous statement (the emphasised information is in bold): - All of the Redgrave family are gifted actors. But it is Vanessa who made the greatest impact in the world of feature films. - ‘I remember your uncle taking us to the fair.' 'No, it was my father that took us there. 2. It cleft sentences have this structure: It + a form of be (+ not and / or adverb) + empasized word / phrase + that / which / who clause It isn't just his outlandish sense of humour that I’m complaining about. We can use this pattern to emphasise the subject or the object of a simple sentence, or an adverbial phrase, or a prepositional phrase: sentence => Mike took Sally to the party on Saturday. emphasising the subject => It was Mike who took Sally to the party on Saturday. emphasising the object = It was Sally (that) Mike took to the party on Saturday. emphasising the adverbial => It was on Saturday (that) Mike took Sally to the party. emphasising the prepositional phrase => It was to the party (that) Mike took Sally on Saturday. In informal English we can use when and where clauses, but we do not use how or why. - It was in January when I got the test results. - It's in Green Street market where we'll find the best bargains. - It was greed why he dd it. => It was because of greed that he did it. - It is using a caleulator how he does it. => It is by using a calculator that he does it.  We cannot use 'if-clefts' to highlight the action or a verb complement in a sentence. We use 'wh-clefts' to do this:

- It was tahing Sally to the party that Mike did => What Mike did was take Sally... - It is totally unscrupulous that they are. => What they are is unscrupulous. 3. We can use this pattern to highlight the action in a sentence. For example, if we want to highlight Mike's action of taking Sally to the party: wh-clause + a form of be + emphasised word or phrase - What Mike did was take Sally to the party.

In these sentences what means the thing(s) that. The wh- clause must contain a verb. to highlight the action we use a form of do in the wh-clause. The highlighted phrase usually contains a bare infinitive (example above) or to + infinitive: - What Mike did wos to take Sally to the party. If the highlighted verb is in the continuous or perfect, the form of do matches it: - The boys aren't leaving Sandy at home. They are taking him to the match. => What the boys are doing is taking Sandy to the match. - Old members are absent but the new members have taken their seats in the assembly. => What the new members have done is taken their seats in the assembly. We can also use ‘wh-cleft’s to highlight a verb complement. For example, if we want to highlight the complement stingy in the sentence ‘Jean and Bob are stingy.’, we can say: wh-clause + is + emphasised complement

What Jean and Bob are is stingy. We use this pattern most often when we …