Emphatic Structures. Cleft Sentences

Emphatic Structures

We often emphasise a particular part of a sentence, perhaps to contradict what someone else has said or for dramatic effect. While speaking, we can do this with stress and intonation alone, but we can also do this by changing the position of elements in a sentence in speech and writing.

There are several of changing the word order of a sentence.

Inversion –

changing the position of the subject and verb. This is common with negative adverbs, e. g. not only, no sooner (едва, как только), never, scarcely (едва, едва ли, с трудом), at no time ( ни в коем случае, никогда), little

No sooner had he fallen asleep than the phone rang.

Littl e does Tom know about his mothe.

Fronting –

moving an element to the front of the sentence which makes it more emphatic:

· ‘She’s such a lovely person; so friendly and reliable. ’

· ‘She may be friendly but she isn’t reliable. ’ => Friendly she may be, but reliable she isn’t! ’

We can also front demonstrative pronouns for emphasis:

· I disagree with that. => That I disagree with

· The house was large and sprawling, with two wings and a dark attic. Hilary spent most of her time in the drawing-room or the garden. The attic she rarely visited

Cleft Sentences

‘Cleft’ means divided. In a cleft sentence, information which could be given in one clause is divided into two parts, each with its own verb:

Vanessa has made the greatest impact. (normal sentence: single clause, one verb)

It is Vanessa who has made the greatest impact. (cleft sentence: two clauses, two verbs)

It cleft Sentences

It cleft sentences have this structure:

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