Inversion as a stylistic devise in the texts of newspaper articles

"Rude was Nicolas Sarkozy in his speech..." (The Observer)

4. The adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence, as in:

"Eagerly they wished the revolution." (The Independent)

 

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

"In went Mr. Cameron." (The Guardian)

"Down dropped the breeze..." (Coleridge)

These five models comprise the most common and recognized models of inversion.

However, in modern English and American newspapers, as has been shown 
elsewhere, there appears a definite tendency to experiment with the 
word-order to the extent which may even render the message unintelligible. In this case there may be an almost unlimited number of rearrangements of the members of the sentence.

Inversion as a stylistic device is always sense-motivated. There is 
a tendency to account for inversion in poetry by rhythmical considerations. This may sometimes be true, but really talented poets will never 
sacrifice sense for form and in the majority of cases inversion in poetry 
is called forth by considerations of content rather than rhythm.

Inverted word-order, or inversion, is one of the forms of what are 
known as emphatic constructions. What generally called traditional 
word-order is nothing more than unemphatic construction. Emphatic 
constructions nave so far been regarded as non-typical structures and 
therefore are considered as violations of the regular word-order in the 
sentence. But in practice these structures are as common as the fixed 
or traditional word-order structures. Therefore inversion must be regarded as an expressive means of the language having typical structural 
models [4].

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Practical part

 

In the practical part we will examine all the types of stylistic inversion which were meant in the theoretical part. Each type to a greater or lesser degree represents a special difficulty for translation. In the term paper there are examples from the articles from newspapers such as «Forbes», «Independent», «Times», «Observer», «Daily Telegraph», «The Moscow News», «The Economist» and «Sunday Times».

The first example was found in the newspaper “Observer”. This is an advertisement of new cheese “Farmhouse English Cheese”:

Can you tell the cheese from the real cheese? Cheese can be made almost anywhere. But real cheese has to be made on the farm. And happily it still is. On the handful of farms in Somerset, in the rolling pastures of Cheshire and in the dales of Lancashire, make we our cheese [14].  

Способны ли вы отличить простой сыр от настоящего? Сыр можно сделать практически  везде. Но настоящий сыр должен быть сделан на ферме. И  к счастью так  до сих пор и происходит. Всего  лишь на нескольких фермах Сомерсета, на холмистых пастбищах Чешира и в долинах Ланкашира делаем мы наш сыр.

This example of inversion refers to the fifth type of grammatical inversion i.e. modifier and predicate stand before the subject.

In this example everything is done for the best influence on consumer. The front placement of the adverbial modifier draws the attention and a consumer first of all reacts to this information.  The important information of producer about the fact that real cheese has to be made on the marvelous meadows and so on is emphasized by the front placement of the producing place. That was possible to reach this goal only by the placement of adverbial modifier in the front place. If we compare this word order with the traditional one “we make our cheese on the handful of farms in Somerset” then the production place loses its emphatic stress. Here the inversion performs intensificative and logic-informative function.

 

The second example is from Forbes [22]. Here is the advertisement of computers.

In the Chin dynasty, they built a wall. Now they’re using AST Computers to add a highway.

Во временя Династии Цинь они построили великую Китайскую Стену. Теперь они используют компьютеры АСТ, чтобы достроить магистраль.

This is the forth type of inversion i.e. the adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence. In this example the string of logic is violated by the shift of the sentence member on the uncommon place. So here we have the logical-informative function of inversion. The part of the sentence which is placed on the front place is underlined and here we have the emphatic stress. The information of this part of the sentence is principal but with the traditional word order it’s additional, subsidiary and unstressed. In order to underline the adverbial modifier along with object in the sentence the adverbial modifier is placed before the subject so that the common word order is violated. This stylistic device is used to attract potential consumer’s attention to the advertised product (computer). This example is a characteristic of a newspaper style as it is full of information.  Using the inversion we change the word order and break the logical chain of expressions.

 

Part of a major economic restructuring tax rises and privatizations will form [20].

Рост  налогов и приватизация сформирует часть основной экономической перестройки.

This is example of the first type of inversion . Here we have the object placed at the beginning of the sentence. Here it is about creating an effect used to draw you deeper into the story. In the examples above, the words "Part of a major economic restructuring " are an attention grabber (probably stressed more in the first sentence than it would be in the middle of the clause). It is presented at the beginning to give a kind of preface to the rest of the sentence and to catch your eye-mind-emotion chain.

Legal behaviour it may be; moral behaviour it is not.

Допустимое поведение – возможно; нравственное – точно нет.

Note that inversion makes italicizing stressed words unnecessary. This might be a good strategy for all those who only have UE BASIC, as we can't show stress without resorting to tactics similar to those who feels a need to-CAPITALISING. Yet it must be remembered that inversion can seem extremely artificial in English, it is used only rarely - when required for cohesion, conciseness or emotional stress on certain words. 

 This example we found in the magazine Forbes ASAP [21].

Most service providers offer a road map. But how many are willing to dig in and help pave the road?

At the heart of Unisys Services is our customerize philosophy

Большинство обслуживающих компаний предлагают карты дорог. А сколько желает поучаствовать в их строительстве?

В основе компании Unisys Services лежит подход, нацеленный на требования заказчика.

This is the fifth type of inversion so when the both modifier and predicate stand before the subject. Its function is not only grammatical but logical-informative. We have the rheme on the front place in order to stress the new information and to attract reader’s attention. If we make a traditional word order we will have the following:

Our customerize philosophy is аt the heart of Unisys Services.

This sentence has already had an emotional coloring because of the expressive vocabulary and the word customerize is marked out by the bold type. When changing the word order the effect of attracting attention becomes stronger. Therefore inversion here has a got a great sense. It singles out necessary information and has got an emotional impact on a reader. It gives additional emotional colouring to the sentence.

 

On his European counterparts Mr Berlusconi has called to do more to help with the worsening economic situation [19].

Своих коллег призвал господин Берлуcкони на помощь в борьбе против ухудшения экономической ситуации.

This is the first type of inversion: the object stands at the beginning of the sentence. In this example the inversion has got several functions. First of all it’s a grammatical one, the second is informative function. The rheme is placed before the theme. With the help of inversion a necessary part of the sentence is pointed out. Inversion transgresses the traditional word order and this contradiction attracts attention.

Had the authorities not evacuated low-lying neighbourhoods last Saturday, enormous amount of people would have died [18].

Не  эвакуировали бы власти жителей из низлежащих районов, они бы погибли.

It is correct that we cannot use a contracted negative form when we use inverted word order to express unreal or impossible condition in the past. Instead, we are obliged to use the full form of not. Of course, had we used the more normal if-clause to express this conditional idea, the contracted negative form would have been the norm.  

 

Should you not wish to sign the contract, you must let them know before the end of June [17].

О своем  нежелании подписывать контракт, вы должны сообщить до конца июня. 

 

Note that we can also use the inversion structure with should when we are talking about present and future conditions and, again, negative forms are not contracted. Use of should here has nothing to do with obligation, but is simply an alternative to the present simple in the more normal if-clause.  

 

Finally, inversion is possible, though I think less common, with this form of the conditional when we are talking about the improbable future. Again negative forms are not contracted: 

 

Were she not his daughter, he'd have no hesitation in phoning the police [16].

Не  будь она его дочерью, он без сомнения позвонил бы в полицию. 

 

We use the inversion strategy when we want what we are saying to sound more carefully considered and it is also characteristic of more formal and literary styles.  

 

Crystal clear the aim is: to keep personal power and the power of the party of crooks and thieves [15].

Абсолютно ясной является наша цель: держать личную власть и власть партийных жуликов и воров.

Here we have the third type of inversion: the predicative is placed before the subject. The author of this article wanted to stress all the clearness of the aim and that is why he put the attribute predicative before the subject. Here we have an emotional colouring function of inversion.

A country with a great history of scientific inventions, cultural talent in music, literature and performing arts is Russia [13].