| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
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| INVERSION 2, SYNTACTIC |
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| Syntactic inversions are variant word orders that put a direct object, a complement, a verb, or even an entire predicate in front of the subject, reversing or scrambling the normal English order of subject-verb-object or subject-verb-complement: A handsome woman she seemed to all of us (predicate nominative precedes subject and verb). A huge appetite for work he had (direct object precedes subject and verb). A huge appetite for work had he (direct object precedes verb, which precedes subject). Says I, “Oh, no you don’t!” (verb precedes subject, which is followed by direct object). Some inversions sound a bit stilted or archaic; others seem quite familiar and acceptable. Perhaps the most common inversions are (1) those we accomplish by means of the passive voice, as in The prize was awarded by the queen, wherein The queen awarded the prize has been inverted to make the normal object and normal subject exchange locations and functions; and (2) the expletive plus verb, as in There goes my last chance, wherein the “real” sentence, My last chance goes [or is going], has been inverted so that the subject follows the verb. See also INVERSION IN QUESTIONS. | 1 |
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| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
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