The first principle

• Inversion is defined as a reversal of the normal order of words in a sentence, which is an important feature of English.

• “ Talent Mr. Micawber has; capita l Mr. Micawber has not ”.

Word-order is a crucial syntactical problem in many languages. In English it has peculiarities which have been caused by the concrete and specific way the language has developed. 0. Jespersen states that the English language "...has developed a tolerably fixed word-order which in the great majority of cases shows what is the Subject of the sentence

The following patterns of stylistic inversion are most frequently met in both English prose and English poetry.

• 1. The object is placed at the beginning of the sentence (above).

• 2. The attribute is placed after the word it modifies (postposition of the attribute). This model is often used when there is more than one attribute, for example:

• “With finger weary and worn...”

• “Once upon a midnight dreary...”

• 3a. The predicative is placed before the subject, as in:

• “ A good generous praye r it was.”

• 3b. The predicative stands before the link-verb and both are placed before the subject, as in: “ Rude am I in my speech...”

• 4. The adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence, as in: “ Eagerly I wished the morrow.”

• “My dearest daughter, at your feet I fall.

• 5. Both adverbial modifier and predicate stand before the subject, as in:

• “ In went Mr. Pickwick.”

• “ Down dropped the breeze...

Detached Construction. Sometimes one of the secondary parts of a sentence by some specific consideration of the writer is placed so that it seems formally independent of the word it logically refers to. Such parts of structures are called detached.

The detached part, being torn away from its referent, assumes a greater degree of significance and is given prominence bу intonation.

1) "Steyne rose uр, grinding his teeth, pale, and with furу in his eyes." (Thackeray)

2) "Sir Рitt саmе in first, verу much flushed, and rather unsteady in his gait. " (Thackeray)

Sometimes а nomina1 phrase is thrown into the sentence forming а syntactica1 unit with the rest of the sentence, as in:

"And he wa1ked slowly past again, along the river - аn evening оf clear, quiet beauty, all harmony and comfort, except within his heart." (Ga1sworthy)

This stylistic device is akin to inversion. The functions аrе almost the same. But detached construction produces а much stronger effect, inasmuch as it presents parts of the utterance significant from the аuthor's point of view in а mоrе оr less independent mаnnеr.

Неrе аrе some mоrе examples of detached constructions:

"Daylight was dying, the mооn rising, gold behind the рорlars. " (Ga1sworthy)

"'I want to go,' he said, miserable. " (Ga1sworthy) "She was lovely: all оf her - delightful. "

The italicized phrases and words in these sentences seem to bе isolated, but still the connection with the primary members of the corresponding sentences is сlеаrlу implied.

Detached construction sometimes causes the simultaneous realization of two grammatical meanings of а word. In the sentence" 'I want to go,' he said, miserable ", the last word might possibly have bееn understood as аn adverbial modifier to the word said if not for the соmmа, though grammatically miserably would bе expected. The pause indicated bу the соmmа implies that miserable is аn adjective used absolutely and referring to the рrоnoun he.