ENGLISH LANGUAGE II – F.

PRIETO – 2023

END WEIGHT & END FOCUS

The general order of elements in a sentence is:

subject + verb + object/complement/adverbial(s)

Sometimes the subject is a very long phrase explaining an idea and would make a sentence difficult to
understand (the subject is marked in bold text):

The fact that many doctors who came to Finland in the 1960's had to start their medical studies over
from the beginning in order to be licensed to practice here is unfortunate.

The principle called end weight means that we try to put long "heavy" elements at the end of the
sentence, and keep the subject as short as possible. In cases such as the sentence above we often use
the "empty subject" it with a complement followed by the "that" clause:

It is unfortunate that many doctors who came to Finland in the 1960's had to start their medical studies
over from the beginning in order to be licensed to practice here.

This construction works with several adjectives in addition to "unfortunate".

Some others are:

amazing, apparent, appropriate, clear, doubtful, essential, evident,

extraordinary, important, inevitable, interesting, likely, natural,
obvious, odd, plain, possible, probable, surprising, and unlikely

Most reporting verbs can also be used in this type of construction in the passive form:

It was found/felt/agreed that this method had little effect.

Another commonly used construction to avoid front-heavy sentences is the so-called existential
sentence, which begins There is/are... and a that-clause.

Thus, instead of:

Many people who believe that the recent warming of the climate is due to the greenhouse
effect exist.

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English prefers:

There are many people who believe that the recent warming of the climate is due to the
greenhouse effect.

Note that in English the verb agrees in number with the noun group used after the verb to be:

There is one thing we can do.

There are three things we can do.

There can also be followed be a few adjectives indicating likelihood or possibility followed by the
infinitive to be:

There are unlikely to be any problems

There seems to have been some negligence.

There tend to be very few failures.

Some reporting verbs can also be used this way:

There is expected to be a report issued next month.

A quite formal usage is such verbs as remain, arise, exist and

a few others:

There remain three major problems to solve.

Note also that new information is put at the end of sentences and 'given' information is put at the
beginning. This links sentences together more tightly and produces a text that is easier to read.

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1. English speakers expect to hear the new information towards the end of the
sentence. This principle is called end focus.

2. English speakers expect more words after the verb than before. This principle is
called end weight.

3. We can improve our writing style through various discourse-based rules which
promote end focus.

Grammar Focus. Passives and other focus structures

Introduction.

Have you ever wondered why fairy tales start with "once upon a time there was a little..." rather than
simply "a little..."? Or why once you mention something, you refer to it later with a pronoun, as in "Mary
bought me a donut and I ate it" rather than "Mary bought me a donut and I ate the donut"? Have you
ever thought about why in conversation our sentences usually start with pronouns? These are
reflections of two important principles that govern how we place information in our sentences, the
principles of end weight and end focus. End weight says that English speakers prefer to have more
words after the verb than before it. Thus I saw him at the market is preferred to At the market I saw
him. End focus says that we prefer to have old or background information before the new and prefer
that the new information come after the verb. Thus There’s a bug in my soup is preferred over A bug is
in my soup since a indicates that bug is new information. To see how these two principles work, let’s test
your intuitions in a couple of awareness activities.

Awareness Activity 12.1. End focus in advertisements

The following pairs of sentences are based on actual sentences from advertisements. One of them is the
actual sentence, the other a reworded version. Which one do you think was the one that the advertiser
thought would be most effective? Is that effectiveness based on end weight or end focus?

4. a. Just one G.I. Joe is now and forever.

b. Now and forever there is just one G. I. Joe.

5. a. This spacious grill is yet another Char-Broil masterpiece.

b. Yet another Char-Broil masterpiece is this spacious grill.

6. a. Ordering, installation and service, EVERYTHING NuVision handles.

b. NuVision handles EVERYTHING: ordering, installation and service.

7. a. In different ways to different people the opportunity to build your own

business can be rewarding
b. The opportunity to build your own business can be rewarding in different
ways to different people.

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8. a. Every minute, every day, world news is happening here.

b .World news is happening here every minute, every day.

Let’s take a look at each to see how the principles of end focus and end weight applied.

1. a. Just one G.I. Joe is now and forever.

b. Now and forever there is just one G. I. Joe.

The words "just one" indicates that G.I. Joe is the focus. By moving the adverbs "now and forever" to the
first of the sentence and moving the subject "just one G.I. Joe" to the end and replacing it in the subject
position with the word "there," we may not have end weight (i.e. more words after the verb than
before), but we do have effective end focus.

9. a. This spacious grill is yet another Char-Broil masterpiece.

b. Yet another Char-Broil masterpiece is this spacious grill.

Notice that the word "another" indicates that the following noun is the new information. The word
"this" indicates that the following word is old information that the reader already knows about, perhaps
by looking at the accompanying picture. Thus the first version has the new and old information in the
appropriate parts of the sentence.

10. a. Ordering, installation and service, EVERYTHING NuVision handles.

b. NuVision handles EVERYTHING: ordering, installation and service.

"EVERYTHING" is capitalized to indicate that it is the focus, perhaps imitating the emphasis that might be
given to the word if the sentence were spoken. In the second version, the emphasized word is not only
after the verb but the examples of the "everything" follow. Thus both the principles of end weight and
end focus are in play.

11. a. In different ways to different people the opportunity to build your own
business can be rewarding
b. The opportunity to build your own business can be rewarding in different ways
to different people.

Having the sentence end in the adjective "rewarding," as in alternative a, would be effective if that were
the focus. However, the advertiser probably wants to draw attention to the "different ways" and
different "people," using both end weight and end focus.

12. a. Every minute, every day, world news is happening here.

b .World news is happening here every minute, every day.

Notice how the advertiser draws attention to the place (here) by using end focus. The second choice
would draw attention to the place and the time (every minute, every day) by placing them at the end of

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the sentence for both end focus and end weight. However, the advertiser wanted to focus on the place,
in this case the news channel.

Awareness Activity 12.2. Old and new in discourse.

The following paragraphs were taken from stories in a popular national magazine. As you read each one,
take mark where the new information is located in each sentence and note what grammatical signals
the authors used to indicate which information is new and which old. I have numbered the sentences to
aid in the discussion.

13. (1) John’s father had been quite resourceful. (2) He and John made a go-cart
together out of wood and metal scraps. (3) Next they made a boat motor out of
found objects. (4) His father’s passion and skills wore off on John. (5) As a
teenager, he built a car. (6) Later he became a machinist.

14. (1) The chain of recovery begins with the victims. (2) They must learn to
recognize the warning symptoms. (3) The symptoms accompanying these mini-
strokes last only a few minutes, (4) but these minutes are crucial for survival.

Starting with passage a, let’s take a closer look at what you probably noticed. I have italicized the focus
or new information in each sentence. (1.) John’s father had been quite resourceful. The new information
is in the focus position at the end of the sentence. (2.) He and John made a go-cart together out of wood
and metal scraps. The focus position at the end of the sentence gives examples of the resourcefulness,
the new information. Notice the use of a with a go-cart to denote new information. (3.) Next they made
a boat motor out of found objects. This follows the same pattern as sentence 2. (4) His father’s passion
and skills wore off on John. The notion of resourcefulness is now the old information is at the beginning
of the sentence (reworded as His father’s passions and skills for sentence variety.) John is in the focus
position at the end of the sentence (5.) As a teenager, he built a car. John is now the old information and
is at the beginning of the sentence as he. The new information is at the end of the sentence. Note again
the a signaling the new information. Note too that a time element (as a teenager) is placed at the
beginning as the background information rather than at the end (he build a car as a teenager.) so as not
to hide the new information. (6.) Later he became a machinist. Again the new information is at the end
introduced by a with background adverbials (later) and old information (he) at the beginning.

Let’s take a look now at how the same use of end focus works in the other passage (1) The chain of
recovery begins with the victims. The focus information is at the end. (2) They must learn to recognize
the warning symptoms. The focus information of sentence 1 is repeated as the old information at the
beginning of the sentence as they. The new focus is at the end. (3) The symptoms accompanying these
mini-strokes last only a few minutes. The focus information of sentence 2 (the symptoms) is now the old
information so it is given first. The new focus information (only a few minutes) is at the end. (4) but
these minutes are crucial for survival. The focus information for 3 is now the old information at the
beginning of 4 with the new information in the focus position at the end.

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The principles of using end focus and end weight come no naturally that we do not realize that other
languages have other patterns. You will find these two principles very useful when helping English
language learners improve their writing.

Awareness Activity 12.3. Street talk versus written language.

Read the following pairs if sentences. Which one are you more likely to encounter in informal spoken
rather than written English?

1. a. The terrorists got captured not long after the bombing.

b. The terrorists were captured not long after the bombing.

2. a. Not long after you called, he started home to see his wife.
b. He started home to see his wife not long after you called.

3. a. They raise Minneola tangelos near Orlando.

b. Minneola tangelos are raised near Orlando.

4. a. Kosovo [stressed] is the topic of discussion today.

b. Today the topic of discussion is Kosovo.

Which ones are the most likely to appear in conversations? Why?

Sentence 1.a uses what is called the get passive, a conversational alternative to the be passive found in
the written English as illustrated in 1.b. Sentence 2.b illustrates how conversational English emphasized
end weight. Written English pays more attention to end focus by bringing background information, as
might be expressed in adverbials of time (not long after you called), to the beginning of the sentence.
Sentence 3.a demonstrates the use of the indefinite they as a substitute for the passive in
conversational language. Notice how they is indefinite since it does not refer to any specific people.
Sentence 3.b illustrates the be-passive found in written English. Sentence 4.a shows how the spoken
English often uses stress for information focus instead of making changes in word order to promote end
focus, as is done in 4.b.

Grammar.

Let's look at how these two principles manifest themselves in our speaking and in our writing.

Focus Stress.
We already looked at focus stress in our chapter on what grammar sounds like. Return to Chapter two
and review how grammatical stress and focus stress interact to bring new information to the attention
of the listener.

Pronouns.

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In our chapters on talking about things and sounding educated we looked at reference chains. We saw
that once we have named an object or other item of conversation, we tend to replace the original noun
with a pronoun so as not to repeat the old information. This use of pronouns allows the new
information to be more prominent, e.g. compare: The cake tastes good because Taka made it. with The
cake tastes good because Taka made the cake. Notice how using the pronoun for the second the cake
helps the new information Taka stand out.

Nonreferential there
Sometimes the subject of the sentence is the new information, as evidenced by the use of the indefinite
article a. A common way in conversation to move this new information so it appears after the verb is to
place a there at the beginning of the sentence and reversing the order of the subject and the verb. This
is sometimes called a nonreferential there since it does not refer to a location. We saw this in the
There's a bug in my soup example in the introduction. Technically since there is not really the subject,
although it is in the subject position, the verb agreement should be based on the nouns following the
verb, the actual subject of the sentence. Thus we should say "There are four reasons to do that."
However, as we saw in our discussion of the evolving standards of the English language, the contraction
there's is now in common usage in conversation with the verb agreement based on what seems to be a
singular there in the subject position.

o There's a cow in the yard.

o There's a couple of men outside wanting to talk to you. (proper English: There are...)

o There's several things I'd like to talk to you about. (proper English: There are...)

Although the verb "to be" is most commonly used with nonreferential there, it can occur with other
verbs such as the following:

o verbs of motion or direction: come, go, walk, run, fly. e.g.Suddenly there flew a bird out
of the bottle.

o event verbs that describe something happening: develop, arise, appear, emerge, ensue,
happen. e.g. Out on the housetop there arose such a clatter.

o verbs of existence or position: exist, live, dwell, stand, lie, remain. e.g. There once stood
a gas station on this corner.

Passives.

Another way to move the subject to the focus position after the verb is to create a passive. Passives may
be created with transitive action verbs in an SVO sentence by reversing the order of the agent subject
and the object, in essence creating an OVS sentence. Since English speakers expect the actor or agent
causing the action of the verb to happen to be in the subject position, the listener or reader has to be
signaled that a change has been made. Let's see how that is done using the sentence "The dog ate my
homework" as an example.

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o reverse the order of the subject and the object, "The dog ate my homework"==> My
homework ate my dog

o place the auxiliary verb "be" before the main verb of the sentence ==>My homework be
ate my dog.

o have the "be" take on the tense or aspect of the verb ==>My homework was eat my
dog.

o change the verb to its past participle form (-en or -ed)==>My homework was eaten my
dog.

o place the preposition "by" before the original subject. ==>My homework was eaten by
my dog.

Try the same with the following sentences to see how it works with other tenses and aspects:

o My dog has eaten my homework.

o My dog is eating my homework.

o My dog will eat my homework.

Cleft Sentences.

Another way to draw attention to new information is to create a cleft sentence, either an it-cleft or a
wh-cleft.

 It-clefts are more common in academic writing than in conversation. They occur in historical
narrative, persuasive discourse, and journalistic writing, especially in newsmagazines. They are
formed by placing the focus word or phrase after an introductory It plus the verb be in the
proper tense followed by a clarifying relative clause. Note how the following examples follow
the formula "It + BE+ FOCUS WORD that..."

 It's the price of gas that will kill us.

 It was in 1942 that you were born.

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 It was John who stole the gems from the store.

o Wh-clefts are more common in conversation. They are frequently used to manage the
flow of a conversation. They are formed by introducing a verb such as mean, want, feel,
think, ask, happen, do with What, add be in the proper tense and then add the focus
information. Note how the following examples follow the formula "What S V BE ......"

 What I did was go to the store for a refund.

 What she meant was she'll never be here on time.

 What you're saying is you're sorry.

 What happened was these guys came at me with a gun.

Adverb Movement.

Sometimes end weight and end focus conflict with each other, especially in writing. Since old
information tends to be at the beginning of the sentence and is often expressed by a pronoun, a series
of sentences in a composition may all start with the same pronoun. The result is a lack of sentence
variety. The new information may actually be hidden in the end of the sentence among the various
adverbials telling when, where, or why the even occurred. This may not be noticed in conversation with
its use of grammatical and focus stress, but it is a problem in writing. An easy way to solve the problem
is to move adverbials that give background information to the beginning of the sentence. Just be careful
that the sentence does not become to "front heavy." End weight with few exceptions should still
predominate.

Note the effect of moving the adverbials in the following pairs:

o Version A. He loved to eat boiled eggs out straight out of the shell in the morning for
breakfast.

Version B. In the morning for breakfast, he loved to eat boiled eggs straight out of the shell.

 Version A. She canned the peaches that she picked yesterday in the
morning.

Version B. In the morning she canned the peaches that she picked yesterday.

Pragmatics and Discourse.

We have already seen that some of the above grammatical devices for focusing information for the
listener or reader are more common in the spoken language rather than written. However, the passive
deserves more attention since the form itself changes depending on when it is used.

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Passives in conversation. Passives are infrequent in conversational English. In fact they are so
infrequent, children have trouble processing the version introduced in the previous section until second
or third grade. Conversational English prefers alternatives to the be-passive. One is the get passive. To
see how it is formed, compared the following be-passives with their get alternatives.

o Be-passive: My cat was hit by a car.

Get passive: My cat got hit by a car.

 Be passive: My buddy was shot by the police.

Get passive: My buddy got shot by the police.

Descriptive studies indicate that about half the passives in conversation, especially among children, are
of this type. They also indicate that the "by" phrase is usually omitted in passives, occurring less than 10
percent of the time, usually to focus the attention on who did the action. Usually the passive is used
because who did the action is unknown or unimportant.

Passives of either type are uncommon in conversation. A common substitute for the passive is to use an
indefinite you or indefinite they as the person doing the action. Notice in the following example that
"you," the listener, are not expected to do the action, as you can tell by the use of the pronoun "you"
rather than "I" in the answer.

 Question: How do you make cheese?

Answer: First you put the milk in a bucket and add....

Notice the indefinite use of "you" and "they" in the following.

 How do they raise oranges in a swamp like that?

 You really have to be careful

The use of indefinite you and they is so common in conversation that composition teachers have to
remind their students not to use "personal" pronouns in their writing unless they actually refer to the
reader or to actual people.

Passives in fiction. Passives seldom occur in fiction. In fact, students in fiction writing classes are often
penalized if they use passives. Action verbs in the active rather than the passive voice create pictures in
the mind.

Passives in the news and academic writing. The be-passive is common in the news and academic
writing since the doer of the action is often unimportant or unknown. The get-passive and the indefinite
"you" and "they" are avoided.

Reflections.

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 Why are the following concepts important for those who are teaching or
learning English?

 end focus

 end weight

 get passive

 be passive

 impersonal they or you

 nonreferential there

 cleft sentences

 adverb movement

 What rule was broken in the following sentences?

 *John born in a barn

 *The window was broke with a rock.

 What’s that outside? *A gator is in the pool.

 *Never I have time to do anything

 *What he wants it’s a car.

 Make cleft sentences of the following.

 I want to study pragmatics.

 These activities are really disturbing me.

 The advertisements are selling the products most effectively.

 Shelly can see a new car in her future.

 Change the following sentences from conversational English to their academic

or journalist English equivalents.

 His scheduled got messed up by the computer.

 This is how you make salt.

 They arrested the bank robbers last night.

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