English grammar - Roger Berry 2012
A11.3 Techniques for redesigning sentences
A11 Redesigning sentences
Section A. Introduction
In addition to the passive and subject/verb inversion, as exemplified above, there are a number of constructions used to satisfy these three principles; they are sometimes called ’movement rules’.
’Existential’ there
In order to avoid having an indefinite ’subject’ in the ’given’ position, a sentence starting with there can be used:
There is a book on the table.
This places the whole of the noun phrase a book on the table in the position for new information. It would sound strange to say A book is on the table, though sometimes descriptions do have indefinite noun phrases in initial position:
A battered-looking wooden bedside table and a cheap chair of black-painted metal and faded red plastic comprise the room’s remaining furniture.
We need to distinguish this use of there from its use as an adverb of place. Both uses are possible in one sentence, as in this example:
There were about 2,000 people there.
The first, existential, there could not be stressed; the second could be, and would have to be pronounced a strong form 
However, not every case of initial there is existential. It can also be the result of subject/verb inversion:
There is your man. (+ AVS, cf. Your man is there.)
See A8 for information about subject/verb agreement with existential there.
Fronting
In some cases we can simply move to the front of a clause an element that normally comes after the verb. There are two examples of fronted objects in the Amy Tan text in C9:
The pain you must forget.
This I knew. rather than
You must forget the pain.
I knew this.
We have already seen examples in this section where certain cases of fronting lead to inversion, but generally it does not.
Fronting allows clauses to fit in with the information principle, but also to have two focuses: This I knew. In addition, in the first example above the fronting allows this sentence to have the same topic as the previous sentence (The pain of the flesh is nothing.)
Fronting is particularly common with adverbials:
On Wednesday I’ll tell you more about the exam.
The initial position is normal for linking and comment adverbs (such as however and fortunately) functioning as adverbials (see B4).
Predicatives can also be fronted:
Okay, Monday at 7 it is. (referring to an agreement to meet)
Fronting looks very similar to subject/verb inversion and the effect can be the same:
In the middle a large table is situated. (fronting)
In the middle is situated a large table. (fronting plus subject/verb inversion) Fronting is the device used in exclamatives (see B9):
How sweet it is!
Activity A11.3
Look for fronted prepositional phrases functioning as adverbials in the above section under ’Fronting’.
Extraposition
We saw in A10 that subordinate and non-finite clauses may be the subject of main clauses. However, such clauses may become quite long, so in order to avoid having long subjects and observe the principle of end-weight, extraposition (sometimes called ’anticipatory it’) may be used:
It is well-known that she is brilliant.
It must be terrible to live so long in such awful conditions.
Here it is a ’dummy’ subject, replacing the (non-finite) clause to live so long, which has been ’extraposed’ to the end of the sentence. It is also possible to say
To live so long in such awful conditions must be terrible.
But this could sound awkward.
Extraposition can also take place with objects when there is a nominal clause:
I like it when you read to me.
I would appreciate it if you could phone me.
Here it refers to the following clauses. It can also be omitted:
I like when you read to me.
But the use of it makes it clearer that the following element is an object, rather than an adverbial, as in
I like when you read to me to be lying in bed.
Activity A11.4
There are two cases of extraposition in the above text on ’Extraposition’. Can you find them and convert the sentences to their ’unextraposed’ equivalents?
Clefting
Cleft sentences allow different elements to be focused on. There are two types, both involving the addition of a subordinate clause to separate out the less important information. With ’it clefts’ a ’dummy’ it is used to introduce the sentence, as with extraposition, but then there is a finite form of the verb be followed by the focused element as its predicative (the violence in the example below). The sentence is completed with a relative clause:
It’s the violence that I hate most.
Compare this with a basic clause: I hate the violence most. Clefting is the structure that is used when testing for central adverbs in B4: It was loudly that he spoke.
The other type of clefting is called ’wh- cleft’ (or ’pseudo-cleft’). It uses a nominal clause introduced by what to separate out the less important information and place it at the start of the sentence. This nominal clause is the subject of the main clause; it is followed by a finite form of the verb be and the focused element as a predicative, as in this example:
What I hate most is the violence.
Activity A11.5
Turn the sentence below into three different it cleft sentences using each underlined element.
John noticed the damage later.
Other techniques
The techniques described above are not the only way to redesign sentences in order to satisfy the end-weight, end-focus and information principles. The choice between OiOd and OdOp constructions that we saw in A8 can lead to different end focuses:
I gave them the money/I gave the money to them.
And the concept of ’quantifier float’ (discussed in the reading in D3) can be explained with reference to the given/new distinction.
All of my friends / were there.
My friends / were all there.
In the second example all is part of the new information.
But in fact the most important technique is lexical rather than grammatical, namely to choose a verb which permits the desired arrangement of elements, as in these examples:
The customers liked the new design.
The new design pleased the customers.
As can be seen, the subject in each case corresponds to the object of the other. In the first example the liking of the new design is presented as new information; in the second it is the pleasing of the customers that is new.
Comments
Activity A11.1: Most European languages are SVO, as is Chinese. Examples of SOV are Japanese, Hindi, Persian and Turkish, of VSO Classical Arabic, Welsh, Irish and Tagalog.
Activity A11.2: The adverbial in stores has been placed in front of the direct object (underwear . . . ). It is unusual to place adverbials between the verb and object, but in this case the object noun phrase is very long; it is postmodified by not just one but two relative clauses:
underwear that would fit someone who was the size of fat Bev
so to place the adverbial at the end could be confusing:
Amy had never seen underwear that would fit someone who was the size of fat Bev in stores.
In this version it is not clear that in stores is actually an adverbial for the main clause (rather than postmodification of fat Bev).
Activity A11.3:
There are two examples, underlined below.
1. ’In some cases we can simply move to the front of a clause an element that normally comes after the verb.’ It is not only in some cases that has been ’moved’; another prepositional phrase, to the front of a clause, has been placed between the verb and object to prevent it appearing after a lengthy object.
2. ’In addition, in the first example above the fronting . . .’. In addition, of course, is a linking adverb.
Activity A11.4:
1. ’It is also possible to say To live so long in such awful conditions must be terrible.’ The un-extraposed version would be ’To say To live so long in such awful conditions must be terrible is also possible’, but this sounds very awkward; there is too much before the main verb.
2. ’the use of it makes it clearer that the following element is an object’. Here it represents the object, with clearer as the object predicative. The unextraposed
equivalent would be ’the use of it makes that the following element is an object clearer’, but this is not possible since the verb make does not allow a that clause as an object.
Activity A11.5:
The three possibilities are:
It was John who noticed the damage later.
It was the damage that John noticed later.
It was later that John noticed the damage.
The subordinate clause in this last sentence is not, strictly speaking, a relative clause (for example, the antecedent is not a noun, and that cannot be replaced by which, though when is a possible replacement).