Chapter published in:
Grammar of Spoken and Written English
Douglas Biber, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey N. Leech, Susan Conrad and Edward Finegan
[Not in series 232] 2021
► pp. 887–956

Chapter 11
Word order and related syntactic choices

Article outline
  • 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
  • 11.3The 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
    • 11.3.4Comparison 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
    • 11.4.3The 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
    • 11.4.9Existential 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