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Adding Emphasis: Clef Sentences Inversion Fronting Emphatic Do-Does-Did

There are several grammatical structures that can be used to add emphasis in sentences: 1) Cleft sentences divide a clause into two parts for emphasis, such as "It was Vanessa who made the greatest impact." 2) Inversion reorders elements, placing the verb before the subject for emphasis when using time or place adverbs or with negatives. 3) Fronting moves objects, complements, adjectives or other elements to the front of the clause for contrast or emphasis. 4) The emphatic forms of do, does and did can provide emphasis in statements and imperatives.

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ELISABETH FERNANDEZ
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219 views11 pages

Adding Emphasis: Clef Sentences Inversion Fronting Emphatic Do-Does-Did

There are several grammatical structures that can be used to add emphasis in sentences: 1) Cleft sentences divide a clause into two parts for emphasis, such as "It was Vanessa who made the greatest impact." 2) Inversion reorders elements, placing the verb before the subject for emphasis when using time or place adverbs or with negatives. 3) Fronting moves objects, complements, adjectives or other elements to the front of the clause for contrast or emphasis. 4) The emphatic forms of do, does and did can provide emphasis in statements and imperatives.

Uploaded by

ELISABETH FERNANDEZ
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CLEF SENTENCES

ADDING EMPHASIS INVERSION


FRONTING
EMPHATIC DO- DOES-DID
Emphasis
 We often emphasize a particular part of a sentence, perhaps to contradict what someone else
has said or for dramatic effect. In 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.

 These are the structures that we can use to add emphasis:

 CLEFT SENTENCES
'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:

E.G. Vanessa has made the greatest impact. (normal sentence: single clause, one verb)

[lt is Vanessa] [who has made the greatest impact.] (cleft sentence: two clauses, two verbs)
There are two types of cleft sentences: It-Cleft sentence and wh-cleft sentence.

 It cleft sentences have this structure:

it + a form of be (+ not and/or adverb) + emphasized word/phrase + that/which/who clause.

It was Lucy who/that moved to London.

We can use this pattern to emphasize the subject or the object of a simple sentence, or an
adverbial phrase, or a prepositional phrase:
Mike took Sally to the party on Saturday.

emphasizing the subject: It was Mike who took Sally to the party on Saturday.
emphasizing the object: It was Sally (that) Mike took to the party on Saturday.
emphasizing the adverbial: It was on Saturday (that) Mike took Sally to the party.
emphasizing the prepositional: It was to the party (that) Mike took Sally on Saturday.
phrase
 W-h cleft sentences have this structure:
wh- clause + a form of be + emphasized word or phrase.

What Lucy did was move to London.

 We can use this pattern to highlight the action in a sentence.


 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 or to + infinitive
 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.
Emphasized: 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.
Emphasized: What the new members have done is taken their seats in the assembly.
 We can use wh- clauses with when, where, why and who to highlight a person, a place, a time
and a reason, but we usually use an introductory noun phrase (underlined below).The wh-
clause acts like an ordinary relative clause:
The one (who) we forgot to invite was Ian.
The house where I used to live is near here.
The reason (why) they never told me is they don't trust me.

 We can emphasize an item (described by a noun phrase or a verb phrase) with


the(only/last/first) thing or all.
The only
The last thing Lucy did was move to London.
The first

All (that) Lucy did was (to) move to London.

 We can also use the (only) thing with a negative verb:

The only thing we didn't find was the key to the cellar.
 INVERSION

 We sometimes put a verb or verb phrase in front of the subject after adverbs of place (e.g. on,
in, here, there, outside, opposite) and adverbs of time (e.g. next, then, first, now, finally).
 We can use a form of be or verbs of place and movement (e.g. stand, sit, lie, come, go, climb,
run, sail, fly) before the subject. We often use this pattern to form a link with the information
in the previous sentence, and it is common in formal English:
Place adverbs + be or verbs of place/movement

Here lies the body of our late lamented sovereign. On one wall there was a beautiful rambling
rose. Opposite stood an ancient oak tree over a charming wishing well.

Time adverbs + be or verbs of place/movement

For the first hour the teams seemed evenly matched. Then came the turning point in the game as
Ed scored. That was the final instalment. Next is the news.
 NEGATIVE INVERSION

Sentences can be given emphasis by negative inversion, which can take place:
1) After negative adverbials such as never, nowhere, not for one minute, not since, not until,
never again, rarely. It is mainly used in written English but can also be used to emphasize
points in more formal spoken English, such as when making speeches.

Not until 1918 did British women get the vote.


Never had he eaten such a huge meal.
Nowhere will you come across a more hospitable nation.
Rarely do you meet a man of such integrity.

2) In certain stablished sentence patterns.


Hardly had he begun to speak when the majority of the guests departed.
No sooner had we sat down to dinner than the doorbell rung.
Little did anyone realize the seriousness of the situation.
3) After expressions with only and no.

Only when I myself became a parent did I realize the value of my parents advice.
Not only did she write short stories, she was also a painter of talent.
At not time was I ever informed.
In no way can this government deny its guilty.
On no account will I compromise my ideals.
!!!! We always use the question word order after negative adverbials.

 FRONTING

 Fronting complements and objects.

In spoken English we sometimes want to make a strong contrast with something in a previous
statement. We can do this with objects and complements by 'fronting' them (moving them to
the front of the clause), which makes them more emphatic.
A: She's such a lovely person; so friendly and reliable.’
B: 'She may be friendly but she isn't reliable. 'Friendly she may be, but reliable she
 We can also front demonstrative pronouns for emphasis:
I disagree with that. That I disagree with.

• Fronting adjectives phrases, also and such.

When we want to start a sentence with known information or we want to make an emphatic
comparison with information in a previous sentence, we can use a comparative or superlative
phrase at the beginning. We use a form of the verb be followed by the subject
The first band was dire. Much more exciting was Red Heat, the second group to play.
Many of the monuments are truly awesome. Best of all is the Colosseum.

 We can use a similar pattern with also and such:

Members of the royal family attended the funeral. Also at the service were several
ambassadors.
They led a life of abject poverty. Such is the fate of most illegitimate children in this
province.
 We can emphasize an adjective by using so + adjective + a form of be + subject + a that clause:
So intense was the heat (that) the firefighters were unable to enter the building for two
hours.

 Fronting adverbials and infinitives; as and though.


We can put known information at the beginning of a sentence by putting adverbial phrases
describing position or place (e.g. At the back of the house), verbs of position and movement (e.g.
stand, attach, lie) and to + infinitive forms in the front position, with inversion of the subject and
verb be.
At the back of the house was an untidy garden. Standing in the corner of the garden was a
massively overgrown silver birch tree which towered over the roof of the garage.

 We can also front an infinitive form when it 'echoes' an earlier verb:


A:He said he would arrive on time. B:And he did (arrive on time). And arrive on time he
did

 We can front verbs and adjectives using as and though:


Battered though he was, he never lost his will to succeed.
 EMPHATIC DO, DOES AND DID

They can be used to give emphasis in positives statements in the Present and Past simple, and
also in imperatives.

John does like the brown shoes.


Do come with us on holiday
They did question him very thoroughly, didn’t they?

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