Read, translate, analyse the following examples paying attention to Inversion and its stylistic function.

1. Out came the chaise—in went the horses—on sprung the boys—in got the travellers. (Ch.Dickens)

2. Up came the file and down sat the editor, with Mr. Pickwick at his side. (Ch.Dickens)

3. Women are not made for attack. Wait they must. (J.Cary)

4. And she saw that Gopher Prairie was merely an enlargement of all the hamlets which they had been passing only to the eyes of a Kennicott was it exceptional. (S.Lewis)

5. Calm and quiet below me in the sun and shadow lay the old house.(Ch.Dickens)

6. How have I implored and begged that man to inquire into captain’s family connections; how have I urged and entreated him to take some decisive step. (Ch.Dickens)

7. Gay and merry was the time; and right gay and merry were at least four of the numerous hearts that were gladdened by its coming. (Ch.Dickens)

8. Bright the carriage looked, sleek the horses looked, gleaming the harness looked, luscious and lasting the liveries looked. (Ch.Dickens)

9. Healthy men they were, in blue or red shirt-sleeves, stout straps about their waists, short pipes in their mouths, fine, hardy nutty brown specimens of humanity. (Th.Dreiser)

10. Flowers! You wouldn't believe it, madam, the flowers he used to bring me. White! He turned as white as a woman. (K. Mansfield)

11. Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous. But nothing happens. (T.S. Eliot)

12. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. (W. Shakespeare).

13. Her love letters I returned to the detectives for filing. (Gr. Greene)

14. Spring begins with the first narcissus, rather cold and shy and wintry. In some places there are odd yellow tulips, slender, spiky, and Chinese - looking. (D.H. Lawrence)

15. Very serious thing this decline of the birth-rate in Manchester," repeated Mr. Cunningham, tapping the Sunday paper, in which the calamity in question had just been announced to him. (E.M. Forester)

16. Only now, at 'this moment of giving up,

Only when they left the house did she seem to realize how ugly it had been. (J. Lindsay)

17. I looked in all directions.., but no house could I make out. (Ch. Dickens)

18. Never had he read fiction with such keen zest as he studied those books. (J. London)

19. Everything was always in its place, and nowhere could you see a speck of dust. (S. Maugham)

20. Only by jerkiness in his movements and by the scuffing of his heels could it be seen that he was old. (J. Steinbeck)

21. Only as he closed the door did he remember he had said nothing of his decision (J. Lindsay)

22. Little did we think that we were never to see him again. (Ch. Dickens)

23. Many bargains had he picked up there. (J. Galsworthy)

24.Many a time in the course of that week did I bless the good fortune. (R. Kipling)

25. The door opened and from the cushions within emerged a tall young man in a clinging dove-gray coat. After him, like the first breath of spring in the Champs-Elysee came Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde–two lizard-skin feet, silk legs, chinchilla body, a tight little black hat, pinned with platinum and diamonds, and the high invariable voice that may be heard in any Ritz Hotel from New York to Budapest. (E.Waugh)

26. On her face was that tender look of sleep, which a nodding flower has when it is full out. Like a mysterious early flower, she was fall out, like a snowdrop which spreads its three white wings in a flight into the waking sleep of its brief blossoming. The waking sleep of her full-opened virginity, entranced like a snowdrop in the sunshine, was upon her. (Lawrence)

Detachment

Detachment is closely connected with inversion as it is also based on the connection between the parts of sentences, usually secondary members, word order or on the regularity of the fixed position of the words in the sentence. When the parts of the sentence usually placed one after another or in some other definite position suddenly change the place and are separated from each other – this is detachment. For example: Brave boy, he saved my life and shall not regret it. (M.Twain) In this sentence the isolated part has acquired a particular status of especially important item. The stylistic function of this detachment is to strengthen and emphasize the separated member.

The detached part, being torn away from its referent, assumes a greater degree of significance and is given prominence by intonation. Any secondary part can be detached – attribute, adverbial modifier, prepositional objects.

Steyne rose up, grinding his teeth, pale, and with fury in his eyes (Thackeray)
Sir Pitt came in first, very much flushed, and rather unsteady in his gait.(Thackeray)

This clash of the structural and semantic aspects of detached constructions produces the desired effect—forcing the reader to interpret the logical connections between the component parts of the sentence. Detached construction, as it were, becomes a peculiar device bridging the norms of written and spoken language.

The general stylistic function of detachment is to lay emphasis and accentuate, highlight and mark the isolated items drawing the reader’s attention to them.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 2390