A study on english inversion

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGLISH
----------------------------

GRADUATION THESIS
B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDIES
A STUDY ON ENGLISH INVERSION

Supervisor

:

HỒ NGỌC TRUNG

Student

:

NGUYỄN THỊ HOÀNG ANH

Date of birth

:

23/06/1993

Course

:

K18A2 (2011 – 2015)

HANOI, 2015


A STUDY ON ENGLISH INVERSION
I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced
by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement and that the report is
originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor.

Hanoi, 04 May, 2015

Student

Supervisor

Full name

Full name


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I should like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Ho
Ngoc Trung of Ha Noi Open University. My teacher did an enormously
helpful advice, enlightening guidance and encouragement, which are the most
precious things and indispensable for the accomplishment of this study. I also
wish to acknowledge his invaluable suggestions and detailed, constructive
comments which improved the thesis more perfect.
I am greatly indebted to Dr Quang, Dean of Ha Noi Open University,
Faculty of English, for his invaluable suggestions and best conditions for me
and other students to complete our study.

My sincere words of thanks also go to Ms Trang at the Library for
providing me an abundant source of primary data which help me complete my
research.
Last but not least, I am grateful to my family and my friends who have
in one way or the other supported me during the thesis completion.
Finally, I would like to take full responsibility for this paper and lay
sole claim to any of its shortcomings or imperfections.
Hanoi, 4 May 2015

Nguyen Thi Hoang Anh


SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

A

Adverbial

Adirection

Adverbial of direction

A.N

Negative Adverbial

A.Ns

Semi-negative Adverbial

AOnly

Adverbial beginning with "Only"

Aplace

Adverbial of place

Aposition

Adverbial of position

.Aproccss

Adverbial of process

Areason

Adverbial of reason

Atime

Adverbial of time

BeOp

“Be” as Operator

Bep

“Be” as Predicator

BrE

British English

C

Complement

Co

Object Complement

Cs

Subject Complement

Cs.N

Negative Subject Complement

O

Object

Od

Direct Object

Od.N

Negative Direct Object

Oi

Indirect Object

Op

Operator

Op-n't

Operator plus the enclitic "not'

P

Predicator


Pmotion

Predicator denoting motion

Pposition

Predicator denoting position

Q-element

clause element containing the Q-word

Q-word

interrogative word

S

Subject

S1

the Subject of the first clause

S2

the Subject of the second clause

S-BeOp

inversion of Subject and Operator "Be"

S-BeP

inversion of Subject and Predicator "Be"

S-Op

inversion of Subject and Operator

S-P

inversion of Subject and Predicator

V

Verb

Vcomlex-trans

complex transitive Verb

Vditrans

ditransitive Verb

Vint
Vmonotrans

intensive Verb
monotransitive Verb

When there are two numbers inside the parentheses separated by a colon, e.g.
(1989:131), the former number indicates the year published the book and the
latter indicates the page(s).
The symbol / (oblique stroke) is used to separate alternative words, phrases or
terms.
The symbol → indicates the transfer from the first sentence or structure to the
second one.

The symbol – mentions examples or details for each kind of inversion.


LIST OF TABLES
Pages

Table 1.1: Difference between fronted element with and without inversion 22
Table 2.1: Examples of negative yes-no question ...................................... 28
Table 2.2: Positive and negative tag questions ..........................................................31
Table 2.3: Examples of Negative and Positive tag questions ...................... 32
Table 2.4: Examples of Positive and positive tag questions ....................... 32
Table 2.5: Examples of Negative and Negative tag questions ..................... 32
Table 2.6: Examples of Wh-questions with S-Op inversion....................... 37
Table 2.7: Examples of inversion with initial negative adverbial ................ 39
Table 2.8: Examples of inversion with a semi-negative adverbial ............. 40
Table 2.9: Examples of inversion with the fronting of an adverbial begin with
“Only” ....................................................................................................... 41
Table 2.10: Examples of inversion with “so/such…. that” and “no sooner” or
“hardly/scarcely” ....................................................................................... 45
Table 2.11: Examples of inversion with initial adverbial ............................ 46
Table 2.12: Examples of inversion in conditional sentence ........................ 47
Table 2.13: Examples of initial “Here” or “There” ..................................... 50


TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................... 1
PART B: INVESTIGATION ......................................................................... 6
CHAPTER 1:THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES ........................................ 6
1.1. Word Order ............................................................................................. 6

1.1.1. Word Order and Linearity..................................................................... 6
1.1.2. Word Order, Patterns and Structures..................................................... 7
1.1.3. Marked and Unmarked Word Order ..................................................... 9
1.2. English Inversion................................................................................... 10
1.2.1. Sentence Elements .............................................................................. 11
1.2.2. Operators ............................................................................................ 14
1.2.3. Definition of English Inversion.......................................................... 15
1.2.4. Fronting and Inversion........................................................................ 19
1.2.4.1. End-focus and End-weight............................................................... 19
1.2.4.2. Theme.............................................................................................. 20
1.2.4.3. Fronting and Inversion..................................................................... 21
1.3. Types of Sentences according to Communicative Functions ................. 23
CHAPTER 2:CONCRETE CASES OF ENGLISH INVERSION ................ 26
2.1. Subject-Operator Inversion .................................................................... 26
2.1.1. In Question ......................................................................................... 26
2.1.1.1. In Yes-no questions ......................................................................... 26
2.1.1.1.1. In Yes-no questions ...................................................................... 26
1.1.1.1.2.In Negative Yes-no questions ........................................................ 28
2.1.1.1.3. In Tag Questions........................................................................... 29
2.1.1.1.4. In Echo Tags ................................................................................. 33
2.1.1.1.5. In Exclamatory Questions ............................................................. 34


2.1.1.2. In Wh- Questions ............................................................................. 35
2.1.1.3. In Alternative Questions .................................................................. 37
2.1.2. In Commands with Question Tags ...................................................... 38
2.1.3. In Exclamations .................................................................................. 38
2.1.4. In Statements ...................................................................................... 39
2.1.4.1. With an Initial Negative Adverbial .................................................. 39
2.1.4.2. With an Semi-Negative Adverbial ................................................... 40

2.1.4.3. With Initial “So” .............................................................................. 42
2.1.4.4. With Initial “Neither/Nor” ............................................................... 42
2.1.4.5. With an Initial Subordinator ............................................................ 43
2.1.4.6. With an Initial Adverbial ................................................................. 45
2.1.4.7. With an Initial Negative Object ....................................................... 46
2.1.4.8. With an Initial Negative Complement.............................................. 46
2.1.4.9. With Initial Predication.................................................................... 47
2.1.4.10. Inversion as a Signal of Conditional Clauses ................................. 47
2.1.5. In Formulae ........................................................................................ 48
2.2. Subject-Predicator Inversion.................................................................. 49
2.2.1. In Statements ...................................................................................... 49
2.2.1.1. With Intensive “Be” as Predicator ................................................... 49
2.2.1.1.1. With an Initial Complement .......................................................... 49
2.2.1.1.2. With an Initial Adverbial .............................................................. 50
2.2.1.1.3. With Initial “Here” or “ There”..................................................... 50
2.2.1.2. With a Verb Other Than “Be” as Predicator .................................... 51
2.2.1.2.1. With an Initial Adverbial .............................................................. 51
2.2.1.2.2. With Initial “Here” ....................................................................... 53
2.2.1.2.3. With Initial “There” ...................................................................... 53
2.2.1.2.4. With No Initial Element ................................................................ 54


2.2.1.3. With a Reporting Verb as Predicator ............................................... 54
2.2.1.4. With a Whole Verb Phrase as Predicator ......................................... 56
2.2.2. In Exclamation ................................................................................... 57
2.2.3. In Formulae ........................................................................................ 57
CHAPTER 3:APPLICATION OF THE STUDY ......................................... 58
3.1. Common mistakes in using inversion .................................................... 58
3.1.1. Mistakes in using inversion with Negative complement ..................... 58
3.1.2. Mistakes in using inversion with initial Predication ............................ 59

3.1.3. Mistakes in using inversion as a signal of conditional clauses ............ 60
3.2. Suggested solutions ............................................................................... 61
3.2.1. Suggested types of exercises ............................................................... 61
PART C: CONCLUSION ............................................................................ 66
BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................ 68


GRADUATION PAPER ON “A STUDY ON ENGLISH INVERSION”

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Background
English, like many other languages, is full of problems for the foreign
learners. As Alexander L.G (1993:9) states, what makes language difficult is
not just words, but the way words are combined to make sentences, for a
sentence is a sum-total of words and this sum-total is greater than its parts. On
the other hand, it is easy to realize that the aims of learning foreign language
is to communicate appropriately by means of the foreign language and that
understanding the grammar of English can help learners to communicate since
grammar is the support system of communication.
Inversion is a linguistically-specified formal device integrated in the
main syntactic classes of sentences. The subject could appear in such a special
situation like: “Why are you looking at me like this?” or “Never have I eaten
such a delicious meal”; or the inverted order of S and P like: “On a mountain
in front of me stands a great castle”, etc.
This study - English Inversion is prompted by both theoretical and
practical inspirational sources.
Theoretically, this study is based on linearity of linguistics signifiers
which is one of the two primary principles of linguistics established by
Ferdinand de Saussure. According to him, linguistic signifiers are “linear” in
the sense that they represent a dimension measurable only as a line, due to

their temporal existence. It is this tenet that underlines the syntagmatic
relationships in English structures. Typologically, English is synthetic
language: there are few inflectional endings, and word order changes are the
basis of the grammar. It has a fundamental SVO order, for instance, the
functions of Subject an Object are carried by preverbal and postverbal

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position. In English, Inversion is a formal device associated with word order
permutations at the sentence level:
- What are the inversion structures?
- How can they be described?
- In what way do they differ from their basic structures?
- What are their motivations and effects?
In this study, I would like to use my attemptation to help you find out
the answers to these questions above. The study also helps to provide grounds
for the fact that linearity is realized at different degrees in different subgroups
of languages. Moreover, it is to illuminate the nature of inverted order in
English and how it is realized. The result contributes to the facilitations of
teaching English grammar.
2. Aims of the study
The aims of this study - English Inversion are:
- To present, classify and describe all the possible cases of English
Inversion structures.
- To predict some problems that may induce types of errors in the

studying of English.
- To suggest some types of exercises in an effort to prevent the errors and
to overcome the consequences of interference.
- Put forward some suggestions for the preparations of the teaching
materials involving English inversion.
Since word order has basically been conceived as a phenomenon of dual
nature, first being related to grammar, second to style, an attempt is made at
examining the styles of various cases of English inversion listed in this study.
In addition, it shows an effort to find out the motivations behind a number of
special inversion structures and the effects created by their presence.

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3. Limitation of the study
The structures are investigated in statements, questions, commands and
exclamations-the four major syntactic classes classified according to different
communication functions. Besides, formulae as a minor sentence type are also
taken into consideration. There are always have some interplays of each
language word order (i.e strictly grammatical) and functional factors.
English inversion is utilized in various functional styles, e.g. the belleslettres functional style (the language style of poetry, the language style of
emotive prose, the language style of drama), the publicistic functional style
(the language style of oratory, the language style of essays, the language style
of newspaper and journal articles), the functional style of everyday-life
discourse, etc. It would be a good idea to study inversion in only one
functional style. However, since this paper is the first step in approaching

such a fascinating object of study. It is intended to serve as a backdrop for the
more exhaustive and delicate inquiries. As far as its limitation as concerned,
this paper deals with English inversion in various functional styles except for
the language styleof poetry. This does not mean that inversion does not occur
in poetry; on the contrary, it is widely employed in verses like:
- In Xanadu did Kuble Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree
(From Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan”)
- Then up spoke the captain of our gallant ship,
And a well-spoken man was he,
“I have married a wife in Salem town,
And tonight she a widow will be”
(From “The Mermaid”, anonymous).

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As a master of fact, the above-mentioned inversion structures cannot be
examined without considering the rhymed and rhythmic patterns governingthe
verses. Consequently, inversion in poetry is beyond the scope of this paper.
It is axiomatic that inversion is associated with word order. The term
“word order” can refer both to the order of words in a phrase, and to the order
of multi-word units within a sentence. The scope of this study is restricted to
the second implication. i.e. it deals with the reversal of sentence elements
only,in particular the permutation of subject and operator or predicator: it is
not concerned with such cases as “steel sheet” – “sheet steel”, etc.

4. Method
This study carries out a microlinguistic analysis on the level of syntax,
the grammar of sentences concerned with the way in which words or
particular word classes are combined to form sentences. According to
Swan,M (1980:25) puts it, a sentence is “a group of words that expresses a
statement, command, question or exclamation. A sentence consists of one or
more clauses, and usually has at least one subject and finite verb. In writing, it
begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, question mark or
exclamation mark”. Linguistics have agreed that all sentences are made up of
one or more clauses and that simple sentences are sentences consisting of only
one clause.
The interpersonal meaning of a sentence determines what kind of
speech act it performs for its user: to praise, condemn, refuse, agree and so on.
Besides, the textual meaning of a sentence also helps to determine how to
maintain cohesion and coherence.
All the information and documents in this study are taken from the
materials or references in which the examples involved have been examined,
described and classified.

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5. Design of the study
This study is divided into 3 parts. The first part is the introduction to
the study. The second part entitled “Investigation” consists of three chapters.
Chapter 1 discusses the theoretical preminaries in which it lays emphasis on

identifying the characteristics of inversion in English, distinguishing inversion
from fronting. Chapter 2 presents and describes concrete cases of English
inversion. Chapter 3 present application of the study such as common
mistakes in using inversion and deals with that problem. The third part, which
is the conclusion, presents a review of the study, closing with the suggestions
for further research. Last but not least, the appendix presents the writer’s
adjusted translations with a parallel of the sake of revision.

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PART B: INVESTIGATION
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES
1.1. Word Order
1.1.1. Word Order and Linearity
According to Huddleston et al. (2002), inversion is a process of
linguistic to introduce entities into discourse.
In linguistic description, word order studies usually refer to the
sequence in which grammar elements such as Subject, Verb and Object occur
in sentences. A great deal of attentions has been paid to the way in which
languages vary the order of these elements, as part of typological studies.
According to Firbas (1986:40-47) every element in an inversion sentence
carries out a dynamic semantics function such as verbs express appearance of
something or somebody, adverbial creates a setting.
For example:
The dog bit the thief .

S

O

As you can see that, if we change the word order of a sentence not only
leads to change in the grammatical relations of the words, but also affects the
meaning of the whole sentence.
For example:
The thief bit the dog
S

O

Hence, word order plays an important role in combining the basic
linguistic units to express a specific meaning. This is based on the principle of
the linearity of language signs, which is established by Ferdinand de Saussure
(1973:119). According to him, a linguistic sign consists of two sides, labeled
as “the thing signified” and “the thing which signifies”; the relationship

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between them is arbitrary. The significant occurs in the stream of time and
thus are governed by the characteristics of time. Time is by nature one-way
only, so the significant come out successively in a one-way direction, forming
a sequence. In writing, the stream of time is replaced by the span of lines.

Any sentence, for Saussure is a sequence of signs, each sign contributing
something to the meaning of the whole, and each contrasting with all other
signs in the language. This sequence can be seen as syntagmatic relationships
– that is a linear between the signs which are present in the sentence.
For example:
“I met Jeamin yesterday”
There is a syntagmatic relationship, consisting of four signs in a particular
order: S + P + property oflanguage makes it impossible for people to produce
two linguistic signs simultaneously.
In short, when a person hears or looks at a display of speech or writing,
the dimension he is most conscious of is a horizontal one, which shows the
linear order of the bits of language. It perhaps the principle of the linearity is
nature and simple, however, it governs all the ways in which language
operates and emphasis on syntagmatic relationships in structure which was
taken as the keynote and approaches to language today.
1.1.2. Word Order, Patterns and Structures
Berry,M (1975:16) gave an idea to use the term “chain” to mention the
horizontal dimension of

language or the syntagmatic axis of

language.

According to her, any utterance consists of a number of language, one after
another, in a sequence, and the dimension along which the sequence occurs is
called the dimension (or axis) of chain. She also indicates that each bit of
language forms a link in the whole chain of a complete utterance and that the

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dimension of chain is correspondent to the time dimension in spoken
language, and to either the time or space dimension in written language.
Patterns occur along the dimension of chain. Each language has a
number of patterns which belong to it but does not have certain others. For
example: We say “It’s a beautiful girl” not “It’s girl beautiful a”.
As regards sentences, they are not simply random strings of words and
morphemes, but conform to specific patterns determined by the syntactic rules
of the language. This statement is true of all human languages. According to
Green (1989:131), the subject which is introduced in a discourse can be an
important person or element belongs to a story or what they talk about. For
example, the following “starred” strings are ungrammatical because they do
not present any patterns existing in English:
- Hamster durian eat immortal colorless.
- Four-wheel in ice cream clothes.
When the same words of these combinations are rearranged according to
the English patterns, they become syntactically well-formed sentences,
although they do not make much sense.
It is obvious that speakers of language use a finite set of rules to
produce and understand an infinite set of possible sentences, most of which
are never produced or heard before. It is the syntactic rules that determine the
correct order of words in a sentence, which proves that “sentences are more
than words placed one after another like beads on a string.”
Green.G.M. (1989:5-6) said that “… principle of logic and laws of
physics do not force the rules to be exactly as they are. Rather at least some of
the rules are arbitrary to some degree and by custom speakers act in

conformity with them. The issue never comes to consciousness, but using the
language in a way that failed to observe the rules would greatly decrease the

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likelihood of successful communication. For example, there is no logical
reason why English adjectives must go before the noun they modified as in
French.
On the other hand, the structural order has at least two horizontal
directions which are opposite to each other. These directions are determined
by the reactions between elements. Moreover, the structural order reflects the
characteristics of grammatical relations.
A speaker linearizes the structural order into the linear order to show
what he means. So does the listener, he makes a transforms the linear order to
structural order to hear.
To sum up, the linear order and structural order have some points to be
correlated to each other. However, they are contradictory to some extents. For
example, in the sentence: “He speaks very fast”, “speak” related to “very” and
“speak” related to “fast”, also.
1.1.3. Marked and Unmarked Word Order
According to the Halliday (1985:110), markedness is a concept used by
linguists to refer to departure from the norm.
Markedness is correlated with the asymmetric relationship with a
question: whether it belongs to phonology, morphology, syntax or semantics.
In this asymmetry, the one which has the specialized elements is said to be

marked, and the last one which is more general and complex is unmarked.
In English, there are such sequences as:
SVO: The woman met the doctor.
OVS: The guy in black I invited- not Marton.
VSO: Only miss the sun when it starts to snow.
OSV: Romantic films she likes watching most.
SOV: A mother tigerpainful vigils keep.

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However, only the first of them is natural and usual. The “unmarked”
order in English considered as basic, dominant and frequent, the rest of used
for special circumstances such as convey special effects of an emphatic and
poetic kind which mentions the features of

markedness as issues of

frequency, regularity, normality, and forth, meaning strange, deviant,
unexpected, unusual in a given context.
In cases of word order, some word orders are lean toward literary,
poetic and emphatic than others. For example: “Here the bus comes” is a
stylistically marked usage of the unmarked “The bus comes here”.
1.2. English Inversion
According to the Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992),
the word “Inversion” which dates back to the 16th century, has two origins in

Latins and Greek. In Latins, “inversion” can be seen as “inversion” or
“inversionis” which means “turning round”. In Greek, its origin is
“anastrophe” which means “turning back”. For instance, in English it is
observed when certain kinds of questions are formed from statement, such as
“Is he singing”?formed from “He is singing” by inverting the order of “he
is”. Inversion is also used to emphasize or to mark priority and eminence.
For example:
“So there came to the kitchen-window two white doves, and then some
turtle-doves, and at last a crown of all the other birds under heaven, chirping
and fluttering, and they alighted among the ashes, ……”
“The normal order in English is S + P and every case of the order P +
S is to be considered as a deviation, that is, as an inversion. This has been the
common view put forward in most grammars until recently.”
(The Structure of Modern English (2010:238)

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For example, the sentence “At the end of the mountain stands a small
village”comes from a normal order one: “A small village stands at the end of
the mountain”.
1.2.1. Sentence Elements
According to Quirk et al. (1972:35-40), there are 5 elements of
sentence structure which are normally obligatory: S (subject), V (verb), C
(complement), O (object), A (Adverbial).
“Verb” can be divided into 2 main parts as follows:

- Stative

intensive
extensive (transitive)

- Dynamic

intensive
extensive:

transitive: - monotransitive
- ditransitive
- complex transitive
intransitive

When verbs (either habitually or in certain uses) will not admit the
progressive, they are called STATIVE, and in contrast to this, they are called
DYNAMIC. Unlike EXTENSIVE verbs, INTENSIVE verbs require a
complement or an adverbial. All transitive verbs take a direct object.
Transitive verbs are divided into 3 major types: DITRANSITIVE

verbs

permit both a direct object and indirect one. COMPLEX TRANSITIVE verbs
take both a direct object and an object complement or an adverbial.
MONOTRANSITIVE verbs take one object only.
The normal aim of the Subject is about “what is being discussed”, the
“theme” of the sentence, with the normal implication that something new is
being said about a “subject” that has already been introduced in an earlier
sentence. Another feature is that S determines concord of person and number

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with the verb phrase. Elements which can be the S are a N or a NP or a clause
with nominal function. It occurs before the verb phrase in declarative
sentences and right after the operator in interrogative one.
The Object (direct or indirect) normally follows the subject and the
verbs phrase. It is a NP or a clause with nominal function. By the passive
transformation, it assumes the status of subject.
Unlike the Object, the Complement does not become S through passive
transformation. It can be a NP, an Adjective phrase or a clause with nominal
function. It follows the subject, verb phrase and object.
The Adverbial is an adverb, adverb phrase, adverbial clause, noun
phrase or preposition one. It is capable of occurring in more than one position
in the clause. Besides it is optional, it maybe added to or removed from a
sentence without affecting the acceptability of the sentence.
There are 6 types of a sentence:
(i)

SVC :

S

Vint

Marton

is

Cs
a foothbal player

kind
(ii)

SVA :

S

Vint

Marton

is

Aplace
here
in Budapest

(iii)

SV :

S
Marton

(iv)

SVOC :

S
She

(v)

SVOC:

Vintrans
was dancing
Vmonotrans
went through

Od
the red light

S

Vcomplex-trans

Od

We

have blamed

him

Co
wrong
a fool

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(vi)

SVOA:

S
She

(vii) SVOO:

Vcomplex-trans OdAplace
left

S
Marton

the keyhouse under the vase

Vditrans

Oi

Od

gave

me

a sweet kiss

The general picture is quite simple, there are:
A two-element pattern
Three three-element patterns
Three four-element patterns

SV
SV + C/A/O
SVO + C/A/O

Many linguistics use the term “Predicator” (P) to refer to the verb
phrase as a sentence element. Mr Eagleson (1983:78) said that: “Predicator is
the term used to describe the function of the verb group in a clause”. Besides,
it is used along with the other function terms, Subject (S), Complement (C),
and Adverbial (A) to describe patterns of structure in clause:
Marton(S) is playing (P) football with his team (C) in the stadium(A).
Due to the aims of this thesis, the term “Predicator” is employed in
replacement of the word “Verb phrase” in A Grammar of Contemporary
English(1972:62). As a result, these 7 types in the previous page can be

formulated as follow:
A two- element patterns

SP

Three three-element patterns

SP + C/A/O

Three four-element patterns

SP + C/A/O

Buren.P.V. (1974:282) states that: “It is logically impossible to engage
in contrastive analysis without postulating common categories of one sort or
another since, more generally, it is logically impossible to compare any two
entities without using the same frame of reference”.
S,V,O,C,A are used to refer to sentence element.

Nguyen Thi Hoang Anh – Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015

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GRADUATION PAPER ON “A STUDY ON ENGLISH INVERSION”

1.2.2. Operators
“Operator” is a word which applies to the first auxiliary verb of a finite
verb phrase.
In the formation of yes-no questions, the Operator is always isolated

from the rest of the verb phrase by inversion with the subject:
a. Will she invite you to the party?
b. Is she inviting you to the party?
c. Did she invite you to the party?
d. Has she invited you to the party?
e. Has she been inviting you to the party?
f. Will she have invited you to the party?
Wh-questions are formed by the Q-element which comes first in the
sentence. Then there come the operator and the subject except when the Qelement is subject.
How many dresses have you had?
Which song is going to be mentioned?
In negative statements, “not” is always placed after the operator or
contracted with it:
a. Ms Minh hasn’t/ has not engaged.
b. Ms Minh would not/ wouldn’t have engaging.
The operator is apart of predicator which consists one or more
auxiliaries. It is not used for forming question or negative sentences with
“not” if predicator without auxiliary.
For example
- It snowed heavily all the season
Did it snow heavily all the season?

Nguyen Thi Hoang Anh – Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015

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GRADUATION PAPER ON “A STUDY ON ENGLISH INVERSION”

In some occasion, “BE” and “HAVE” can be predicator which can act

like operators.
For examples
- Have they any cars?
- Is he a good guy?
An operator can be used in some more occasions which apart from
questions and negative. They are mentioned in these structures below:
Emphatic sentences: She did sing a very beautifully song.
I do like this dress so much.
Do be silent!
Tag questions:

He hasn’t married yet, has he?
They didn’t want to join this party, did they?
She seems to love animals so much, doesn’t she?

Pro-forms:

Minh failed the exams and so did her best friend.
A : Why did you know my birthday?
B : Your father told me yesterday.
A : Oh,,, uhm, of course he did.
(Twilight saga– New moon)

Statements with inversion: After some lovelorn did she realize that family
always is the most important to her life.
Never have I seen such a beautiful mountain.
In conclusion, operator plays an important role in syntactic function. It
is normally the first auxiliary, stands independent of a complex predicator .
1.2.3. Definition of English Inversion
Inversion is a syntactical phenomenon which is considered as a

language universal, using in many other languages such as: English, French,

Nguyen Thi Hoang Anh – Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015

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GRADUATION PAPER ON “A STUDY ON ENGLISH INVERSION”

Russian, German, .... It has various functions and uses which are mentioned
in some definitions below:
According to Swan,M. (1980:277), inverted words stand before the
subject which can occur in questions or normal statements. There are two
main kinds of inversion with the auxiliary’s arrival before and after the
subject. If there is no auxiliary, “do, does, did” is added.
For examples:
- Only before the test did she feel nervous.
- Have my letters arrived yet?
- They like the opera and so do their children.
In some sort occasion of inversion, the whole verb comes before the
subject and auxiliaries are not used.
For examples:
- At the corner stands a beautiful woman.
- Does rushing to meet work deadlines before a break leave you more
prone to coming down with an illness? said Claudia Hammond.
Inversion is a rearrangement of subject and verb from normal order into
a new one to emphasize the meanings.
For examples:
- Is she ok?
- Here is my most beautiful performance.

- Only when he came home did he recognize someone broke into his
house.
There are many kinds of inversion such as:
- Subject- verb inversion:
Adverbial comes first then verb and subject:
- Outside the door comes a black woman.

Nguyen Thi Hoang Anh – Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015

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