Chapter published in:
Grammar of Spoken and Written EnglishDouglas Biber, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey N. Leech, Susan Conrad and Edward Finegan
[Not in series 232] 2021
► pp. 887–956
Chapter 11Word order and related syntactic choices
Article outline
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11.1Overview
- 11.1.1Information flow
- 11.1.2Focus, emphasis, contrast, and intensification
- 11.1.3Weight
- 11.2Word order
- 11.2.1Grammatical principles of word order
- 11.2.2Fronting
- 11.2.2.1Fronted objects and other nominals
- 11.2.2.2Fronted predicatives
- 11.2.2.3Fronted infinitive predicates
- 11.2.2.4Fronted ed- and ing-predicates
- 11.2.2.5Fronting in dependent clauses
- 11.2.2.6Fronting in exclamations
- 11.2.2.7Fronting: Distribution
- corpus findings
- discussion of findings
- 11.2.3Inversion of subject and verb or operator
- 11.2.3.1Subject-verb inversion
- 11.2.3.2Subject-operator inversion
- 11.2.3.3Inversion after the linking forms so, nor, and neither
- 11.2.3.4Special cases of inversion in independent clauses
- 11.2.3.5Inversion in dependent clauses
- 11.2.3.6Inversion in reporting clauses
- 11.2.3.7Reporting clauses in fiction and news
- corpus findings
- discussion of findings
- 11.2.3.8Inversion in general: Distribution
- corpus findings
- discussion of findings
- 11.2.4Word-order options at the end of the clause
- 11.2.4.1The placement of direct and indirect objects
- corpus findings
- discussion of findings
- 11.2.4.2Pronoun sequences as direct and indirect object
- corpus findings
- DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
- 11.2.4.3Clauses with direct objects and object predicatives
- corpus findings
- discussion of findings
- 11.2.4.4The placement of objects of phrasal verbs
- corpus findings
- discussion of findings
- 11.2.4.1The placement of direct and indirect objects
- 11.3The passive
- 11.3.1Types of passive construction
- 11.3.2Passives across syntactic positions and registers
- corpus findings
- discussion of findings
- 11.3.3The long passive
- 11.3.3.1Length of subject v. agent phrase in long passives
- corpus findings ,
- DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
- 11.3.3.2Givenness of subject v. agent phrase
- corpus findings ,
- DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
- 11.3.3.1Length of subject v. agent phrase in long passives
- 11.3.4Comparison of discourse functions of the long and short passive
- 11.4Existential there
- 11.4.1The grammatical status of existential there
- 11.4.2Variation in the verb phrase
- 11.4.2.1Verb constructions other than simple be
- CORPUS FINDING
- discussion of findings
- 11.4.2.1Verb constructions other than simple be
- 11.4.3The notional subject
- 11.4.4Adverbial expansions
- 11.4.5Existential and locative there
- corpus findings
- discussion of findings
- 11.4.6Simple v. complex existential clauses
- corpus findings
- discussion of findings
- 11.4.7Discourse functions of existential clauses
- 11.4.8Existential clause v. locative inversion
- 11.4.8.1Existential clause v. locative inversion: Distribution
- corpus findings
- discussion of findings
- 11.4.8.1Existential clause v. locative inversion: Distribution
- 11.4.9Existential constructions with there v. have
- 11.5Dislocation
- 11.5.1Prefaces
- 11.5.2Noun phrase tags
- 11.5.3Prefaces and noun phrase tags: Distribution
- corpus findings
- discussion of findings
- 11.6Clefting
- 11.6.1It-clefts
- 11.6.2 Wh-clefts
- 11.6.3Reversed wh-clefts
- 11.6.4Cleft constructions: Distribution
- corpus findings
- discussion of findings
- 11.7Syntactic choices in conversation v. academic prose