Bewitched, bothered and Fronting am I.

#1 26-Jan-2005, 10:32

This post is for new and newer teachers who may want to learn about the technique of "fronting" in English.

What is "fronting"?

In English, the "(...) kernel sentence structure may be altered to bring elements to the front of the sentence. This movement is called fronting. So, apart from Daniel wrote a very good book last year, we can create A very good book, Daniel wrote last year or Last year Daniel wrote a very good book or What Daniel wrote was a very good book or Daniel, he wrote a very good book last year. But why would we like to change the basic structure of the sentence?"

Read more at: http://www.ugr.es/~ftsaez/theme.pdf

An example of fronting is in the third line of this song extract. By changing the expected word order, the writer wanted to achieve a rhythmic effect:

"I'll sing to him, each spring to him
And long for the day when I'll cling to him,
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I."

Cole Porter

Read the whole text at the link above or chat with someone here if you want to understand more about fronting . If you come across any examples of fronting, why not post them?

M56