Syntax - přednášky

• Exclamation (exclamation mark), inversion x normal declarative

1. What experience has he had? – What experience he has had!

• Normal question x exclamation (jakou měl zkušenost? X ten má ale zkušenost)

1. I would have helped you had your courage failed you.

• Já bych ti býval pomohl, pokud by tě opustila odvaha

• There is no “IF” – conditional mark – conjunction – conditional clause without conjunction – used in very formal English

1. Should I happen to see him, I’ll let him know. –II-

2. Were it not for your help, I would be homeless. –II-

Semantic factor

1. Mostly children read books of this kind. – Většinou děti čtou tyto knihy.

2. Children mostly read books of this kind. – Děti čtou většinou tyto knihy.

3. The rule is generally applicable to these situations. – generally = adverbial

4. Generally the rule is applicable to these situations. – Generally = Comment referring to the whole content.

5. I really don’t know. – I have no clue – určitě nevím.

6. I don’t really know. – I don’t know exactly.

7. (Only) I (only) spoke (only) to his (only) sister.

   1. Only I spoke.. – nobody else spoke to her

   2. I only spoke to his sister. -

   3. …to his only sister – he has only one sister

8. Even the children enjoyed the concert. – Dokonce I děti si užily..

9. The children enjoyed even the concert. – Children enjoyed concert and also other programme

10. They can’t possibly leave now – je nemožné aby odešli x možná nemohou odejít

26. We spent the first two nights in Dover - první dvě noci

27. I have seen two first nights recently - viděl jsem dvě premiéry

28. The situation hasn’t yet been sorted out (hasn’t been sorted out yet) - yet = part of not yet – ještě ne

29. She has done so many bad things; yet people can’t help liking her. - yet = in spite of that

Emotion and emphasis

30. Never does he realize how important it is. – inversion (does he realize – subject operator inversion)

32. If we don’t keep the price down, off go our chances of getting the contract. – inversion (off go our chances – subject verb inversion )

33. Off went the man. - Subject is expressed by noun x by pronoun – the rule says that when subject is expressed by noun, we use subject verb inversion to emphasise

34. He got stuck in the lift last week and wasn’t he upset about it! - Zasekl se ve výtahu a ten byl ale naštvaný

Fronting

Moving into initial position an item which is otherwise unusual there

Reasons:

• To echo thematically what has been contextually given

You should take up swimming for relaxation.

Relaxation you call it.

• The item fronted may be the one contextually most demanded

Wilson his name is.

• Fronted item provides direct linkage with what has preceded. End focus falls on the most important part of the message.

To this list may be added other items of importance.

With adverbials in front position we often find:

Subject – verb inversion

• Here comes the milkman.

• Here he comes.

Where a phrase of negative form or meaning is fronted we find: