Highlighting

Question 1

3 principles which influence our choice of word order

Answer 1

1) topic-initial principle
- Pat married Kim. Kim married Pat.

2) end-focus principle
- gradation of position creates gradation of meaning (from beginning towards the end)
- I gave the book to Jessica. I gave Jessica the book.

3) end-weight principle
= the tendency to position “heavy,” long and complex elements at the end

Question 2

fronting (pre-posing)

Answer 2

• placing the canonically post-verbal element to pre-verbal position

(Richard I cannot stand. - fronted O)
(Shy she is not. - fronted Cs)

Question 3

inversion

Answer 3

• the reverse order of subject and predicate
  (In walked Tom. Here comes the postman.)
  X Up she went. = fronting

Question 4

left and right dislocation

Answer 4

• the dislocated phrase leaves a pronoun in the position it originally had
• fronted or post-posed

I love my daughters.
→ My daughters, I love them. (left-dislocation)
→ I love them, my daughters. (right-dislocation)

Question 5

extraposition

Answer 5

• a non-final part of an utterance (typically a subject clause) - postponed to the final position
• eng-weight principle

(It does not matter what you say.)
→ anticipatory it

Question 6

cleft construction

Answer 6

• dividing more elementary structures into two clause-like parts

(It was Paul that (who) was playing the guitar last night.
It was the guitar that Paul was playing last night.)

Question 7

pseudo-cleft constructions, wh-pseudoclefts

Answer 7

• any element can be highlighted (even the VERB)

(What you need most is a good rest.)
! What Paul did last night was (to) play the guitar.
What I’m doing is teaching her to swim.

Question 8

inverted pseudo-clefts

Answer 8

He hates syntax.
→ Syntax is what he hates. (= inverted pseudo-cleft)

X → What he hates is syntax. (= pseudo-cleft)

Question 9

semantically vague subject NP

Answer 9

• All he needs…
• The thing he needs…
• One of the things he needs…
• What he needs…

→ …is a little more discipline.

Question 10

there constructions

Answer 10

• shifting (postponing) the notional S of the base sentence and allowing such S to carry a particular degree of “newness” (communicative dynamism)

1) There was a complete silence.
- existential

2) There was a boy in the room.
- existential-locative