Word order and emphasis 2 1 i Grammar Fronting We can emphasise a particular part of a sentence by moving it to the front of the sentence, changing the usual word order: She sees making music as a fundamental part of a child's development. -* Making music she sees as a fundamental part of a child’s development. (fronting of object) She resisted this. -* This she resisted. (fronting of object) ‘Maria had been writing to me for some weeks. For some weeks Maria had been writing to me. (fronting of adverbial) Cleft sentences Its among children from poorer backgrounds that the Music in Schools project has had most impact. (emphasising among children from poorer backgrounds) What impressed us most was the way she calmly and clearly argued her case. (emphasising the way she calmly «and clearly argued her case) An it-cleft has the structure it + is/was + emphasised part + relative clause. The relative pronoun can be that, which, who or no relative pronoun. When and where are used only in informal English: 1 was in the mid-1990s that we first met. or informally .. when we first met. A sentence with a wh-cleft usually has the structure what-clause + is/was + emphasised part. Sometimes we use all instead of what: What she was suggesting was that members of the YCO would volunteer their services. All she ever wanted to do as she was growing up was play the violin. (= the only thing she ever wanted to do) After the what-clause we usually use a singular form of be (is or was). However, informally. a plural orm (are or were) is sometimes used before a plural noun: What she hopes to see is/are children who enjoy a wide range of musical styles. We can sometimes put awh-cleftat the end ofa sentence: The way she calmly and clearly argued her case was what impressed us most. The Music in Schools project is what came out of our meeting. ‘To emphasise an action we can use a wh-cleft with what + subject + form of do + form of be + (to) + infinitive: What she did was (to) convince us ofthe value of a musical education, BE’ wwersion In fron: of the committee sat Maria. (= verb + subject) Seldom did she raise her voice (Edo + subject + verb) inversion of normal word order ‘Never have I heard such a persuasive speaker. (= auxiliary + subject + verb) Word order is inverted after certain words and phrases when these are put at the beginning of a sentence or Clause in order to emphasise them. This kind of inversion is found mainly in formal speech and writing. 1492 1 Word order and emphasis Inversion occurs after words and phrases with a ‘negative’ meaning: © the negative adverbs never (before), rarely, seldom; barely/hardly/scarcely .. when/before; no sooner ... than; nowhere; neither, nor: Rarely have I met anyone with such enthusiasm. No sooner had Maria walked through the door than she started to talk about her proposal. hadn't met Maria bejore, and nor had the other members of the committee. (Seealso Unit 17,2.3 for more on hardly, no sooner and scarcely.) * only + atime expression (e.g. after, later, then) or a prepositional phrase: Only after Maria threatened to withdraw her support did the council back down. © the prepositional phrases at no time, on no account, under/in no circumstances; in no way (or no way in informal language): At no time has she ever accepted payment jor her educational work She argued that under no circumstances should children from poorer backgrounds be made to pay for music lessons. © expressions with not: not only, not until, not since, not for one moment, not once, not a + noun: Not only has she persuaded YCO members to give up their time, but she has ako encouraged visiting musicians to give free concerts in schools. © itle with a negative meaning: Little did she realise when she set up the project that it would be so influential Inversion also occurs after: © time sequence adverbs such as first, next, now, then with be or come: And then came an invitation to be a special adviser to the government on music education. lf there isa comma () or an intonation break in speech after the adverb, normal word order is used: Then, an invitation came from the government. (not Then-camie-arinvitation ...) © 50 + adjective... that, emphasising the adjective So successful has Music in Schools been that those involved in music education arcund the world have visited the city to see the project in action. © such + be ... that, emphasising the extent or degree of something: Such was her understanding of music education that the government wanted to draw on her expertise. (= Her understanding of music education was such that...) [EJ Inversion in conditional sentences {In formal or literary English, we can use clauses beginning were, should and had, with inversion of subject and verb, instead of a hypothetical conditional: Were she ever to leave the orchestra, ... (= if she left... or If she were to leave ...) Were he here tonight, .. (= fhe was/were here tonight...) Should you need any more information about Music in Schools, Had Maria not been around, ... (= f she had not been around. In negative causes with inversion, we don't use contracted forms: Had Maria not set up the Music in Schools project... (not Hede't Maria-set-up ...) iF you need ...) 150Word order and emphasis 2 1 Grammar exercises Write a new sentence with a similar meaning to the original. Emphasise the information underlined using an it-cleft or a wh-cleft at the beginning of the sentence. Sometimes both are possible. | want you to hold the cat tightly while | put on this collar. She announced she was going to join the air force at her 18th birthday party 3 A: Sohowdid you get the car out of the mud? B: We asked a farmer to pull us out with his tractor. 4 As What do you think’s wrong with the car? Br The battery could be fat. 5 This huge bunch of flowers arrived for me this morning. | don't know who sent them. 6 Myparents must have given Wei my telephone number. 7 The research shows a link between salt intake and rates of heart disease. 8 Hisnervous laugh made me think he was lying. 1 Wha | want you to do is hold. the cat tightly while | put on this collar Match the sentence halves. Write new sentences with a similar meaning starting Should ... Had ... or Were... . 1. Ifyou require further details, she might have made a full recovery. 2 If today's match hasto be rogoet > the insurance covers afull refund, 3 Ifanyone had been looking at Maria when ¢ please contact our public information the police arived, office. 4 Iftaxeswere to be increased further, there would be a huge public outcry. 5 Ifthe doctors had operated sooner, we would not have begun the climb. 6 flwere president, £ itwill be replayed next week. 7 your fight is cancelled, theywould have noticed the expression 8 If heavy snow had been forecast, af panic on her face, fh would introduce three-day weekends. 1+¢ _Shoul quire furthe contact our i 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 15T21 Word order and emphasis EEE] complete the sentences with appropriate words. Use three words only in each sentence. 1 I thought the insurance policy would pay my hospital fees. Atno time _was | told / was | informed _ that it did not cover skiing injuries. 2. Seldom ___piano playing of such maturity from someone so young. 'm very impressed indeed. 3 He felt someone bump against him on the crowded bus, but only later that his wallet had been stolen, 4 [found the old bracelet while 1 was walking along the beach. Little then that | had made one of the most important archaeological discoveries of recent years. 5 Notsince Philip and Gary Nevile last played in 2004_________rwo brothersin the England football team. 6 Lasked her to describe her attacker, but only after several minutes_____me. 7 Nosooner_____into bed than his flatmate started playing his drums. 8 The Atlantic crossing took eight days. | was in Isabella's company on several occasions, but not a word to me until near the end of the journey. Rewrite the underiined parts of the conversation, emphasising the word(s) in italics. in each case use fronting, a cleft sentence or inversion. ‘As [hear you and Anna didn't havea great holiday on the sland. No, not really, although (1) we liked the island a lot. (2) The hotel was the real problem. «Why? What was wrong with it? (Our room was just awful. The shower only had cold water and the air conditioning didnt work. ‘: Didn't you complain? ‘Oh yes. Anna was pretty annoyed and went down to reception to complain. But they told her she ‘was just being fussy and (3) she got really furious about that. She insisted on seeing the manager, and demanded that something should be done. ‘And was it? B: Well, we had a steady stream of workers coming into the room after that. (4) An electrician came first and then the next day a plumber. But neither of the problems got fixed. (5) It took them three days to decide that we needed another room. > PP ere > ‘You must have been fed up with the hotel by that time. B: | think (6) the attitude of the staff annoyed me most ~ they really just didn't care. (7) Lhave never. seen such a total lack of interest from people who are supposed to be providinga service. (8) No one apologised once the whole time we were there ... the island, we liked a lot sone evan 152Focusing with it-clauses We can use an it-clause with be to focus attention on the information that immediately follows it + (be). A sentence like this is sometimes called a cleft sentence. The clause after the it-clause (usually @ that-clause) contains information that is already known or considered to be less important: "Lea bought the car from Olav’ ‘No, it was Olav that bought the car from Lea.’ don’t mind her criticising me, but it’s how she does it that | object to. It was to show how much I cared for her that | bought her the necklace. We sometimes use which or who instead of that; when and where can also be used, but usually only in informal English; and note that how or why can’t replace that: Karl was always there to help her, and it was to him that / who she now turned for support. ‘Ida's seriously ill in hospital’ ‘But it was only last Sunday when / that | was playing tennis with her.’ It was in Warsaw where /that the film was made. “Was it by cutting staff that he managed to save the firm?’ ‘No, it was by improving, distribution that he made it profitable (not ... how he made it profitable.) Focusing with what-clauses We can also use a what-clause followed by be to focus attention on certain information in a sentence (= another form of cleft sentence). This pattern is particularly common in conversation. The information we want to focus attention on is outside the what-clause, Compare: ‘We gave them some home-made cake. and What we gave them was some home-made cake. We often do this if we want to introduce @ new topic; to give a reason, instruction or explanation; or to. correct something that has been said or done, In the following examples, the information in focus isin italics: What I'd like you to work on is the revision exercise on the website. Isa arrived two hours late: what had happened was that his bicycle chain had broken, ‘We've only got this small bookcase — will that do?’ ‘No, what | was looking for was something much bigger and stronger.’ \We can often put the what-clause either at the beginning or the end of the sentence: What upset me most was his rudeness. or His rudeness was what upset me most. To focus attention on an action performed by someone, we use a sentence with what + subject + do + be + to-infinitive clause, We can’t use an it-clause to do this (see A): Luis lost his job and was short of money, so what he did was (to) sell his flat and move in with his brother. (not ... so it was (to) sell his flat that he did) ‘The pattem in B is only usually used with what-clauses. Instead of placing other wh-clauses (beginning how, when, where, who, why) at the beginning of the sentence we prefer to use a noun which has a meaning related to the wh-word (e.g. reason rather than why; place rather than where) followed by a that- or wh-clause. Here are some examples: >) The only reason (why / that) | left the party early was that | was feeling unwell. (rather than Why I eft the party early was ...) The place (where / that) you should play football is the playground, not the classroom. Somebody (who / that) | enjoy reading is Peter Carey. The time (when / that) | work best is early morning,Exercises G]©PBD complete the rewritten sentences to focus attention on the underlined information. Start with it + be and use an appropriate wh-word or that. €9 1. Mark's known for ages that his parents are coming to stay with us this weekend, but he only told me yesterday. Mark's known for ages that his parents are coming to stay with us this weekend, but....it. was only yesterday that / when he told. me. Helena has been feeling a bit depressed for some time, so | booked a holiday in Amsterdam to ‘cheer her up. Helena has been feeling a bit depressed for some time, so... It’s not that | don’t want to have dinner with you tonight; | can’t come because I've got so much work to do. It’s not that I don’twant to have dinner with you tonight; ' had my wallet when | went into the sports hall, so | lost it somewhere in there. / had my wallet when | went into the sports hall, so. 5. She doesn’t find learning languages very easy, and she improved her Spanish only by studying very hard. She doesn’t find leaming languages very easy, and. 6 Ihave had a great deal of help from my parents and two brothers in my research, and I dedicate this thesis to my family. / have hada great deal of help from my parentsand:wo brothers in doing my research, and. EBD write 8's responses beginning No, what ..., correcting what was said in A’s question. Use the notes in brackets. @) 1 &: Did you say that Rudi was going to live in Austria? (holiday / Austria) s: Ne, what. | said was. that he was going on houday to Austria, 2 a: Do you hope to sell your Picasso paintings? (be put into/ publicart gallery) 8: ‘ id it annoy you that Carla came so late? (not apologise) B 4 & Didyou mean to give Ella your bike? (could borrow it / until needed again) 8 Now give similar responses which focus on the action. 5 A: Did you watch the football on TY last night? (get brother / record it / watch tonight) o: Ne, what | did mas (to) get my brother to record it and I'l. watch i tonight 6 a:This steak tastes delicious, Did you fry it? (put oil and soy sauce on / grill) 8: 7 4: Did you buy Megan the coat she wanted? (give / money towards it) 8: 8 4: Did you fly from Sydney to Brisbane, (hire a car /drive all the way) EBD complete 8's responses using one of the phrases from section C opposite and the information in brackets. Put the information in the right order and add an appropriate form of be. @ 1A: | suppose Paul got the job because of his qualifications, (uncle owns company) 8: Well, actually, think... the reason why / that Paul got the job was that his uncle. owns the, company, 2 &: Do you know anyone who could mend my computer? (might be able/ help / Petra) 8: | don't knowif she’s free, but 3 You grew up in this village, didn’t you? (between this village and next) a: Infact 4 4: In what period of your life do you think you were happiest? (lived Australia) 8: | suppose 197