[Grammar] Flipping: Object - Auxiliary Verb - Subject - Main Verb

[naweewra]

Hello,

The following sentences are part of the curriculum taught at a secondary school. Students are asked to invert a normal affirmative sentence to a Verb-Subject construction.

a. I can do my homework. >> My homework can I do.

b. I ate my sandwich. >> My sandwich did I eat.

c. I always have had such a bad morning. >> Always have I had such a bad morning.

d. I studied maths. >> Maths did I study.

To me, it looks similar to what I have learned as inversion. But I have only seen inversion with adverbs and certain "negative" constructions (Not only..., but also...). Is this an old construction?

Best regards,

Nawee

 

[charliedeut]

To me, the "converted" sentences sound like Yoda from the Star Wars movies (as in: "Powerful you have become, the dark side I sense in you"). ;-)[h=2][/h]

 

[Raymott]

What's the point of this? None of the converted sentences are proper English.
Are you sure they mean OVS. I think Verb-Subject corresponds better to VSO:
1. Can do I my homework.
2. Ate I my sandwich.
etc.
That might be a linguistics exercise to get an ides of how some VSO languages work, but I can't see how it teaches English.
Here's a list of VSO and OVS languages: (Note that there are no natural OVS languages listed, only Klingon and Interlingua).
http://lingwiki.com/index.php?title=List_of_VSO_Languages
http://lingwiki.com/index.php?title=List_of_OVS_Languages

 

[naweewra]

Yes, I'm very sure. I copied those sample sentences from the handout that is used for exam preparation.

And to answer your question, I don't know why this construction is taught.

Thank you for your posts. Now I know it is not proper English usage. If I don't understand it, then it's not a problem.

Nawee

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello, Nawee:

I was wondering whether you were referring to something like this:

Mona: I spent 5 hours baking these cookies, and you haven't eaten any. Why?

James: I'm sure they're delicious, Mona, but cookies I don't need!

That sentence is playful or humorous. If James had answered, "I don't need cookies," that might have sounded a bit rude and might have hurt Mona's feelings.
But using inversion changes the meaning to something like: Look at my big stomach! Cookies are something that I do not need at this time!

*****

Let's look at your first sentence:

1. If you want to use inversion (as I did in my "cookie" example), it should probably be: My homework I can do.


James: I am having a terrible problem trying to cook this turkey.
Mona: I'm not a very good cook, either. But I'm a good student, so I can help you do your homework.
James: Thanks, Mona. My homework I can do. What I can't do is cook this turkey!

Do you notice the special emphasis on the words "My homework"?

*****

Regarding your other sentences:

b. My sandwich I did eat. (That seems to be somewhat similar to my "homework" example.) It's the vegetables that I did not eat!

c. Such a bad morning I have always had, (I personally do not think that people would say such a sentence, but maybe the following would be possible: Such bad mornings I have always had.)

d. Maths I did study. (It's languages that I never studied!)



James

P.S. I am happy that you want to learn about inversion. Sometimes we use it for the beautiful sound. Sometimes to change the same "boring" word order. Here is an example that I have in my files: "Close friends these two friends were not." That is stronger than the usual "These two friends were not close friends."

 

[Matthew Wai]

Always have I had such a bad morning.

Will it be proper English if 'Always' is replaced with 'Never' which is a negative adverb?

 

[Rover_KE]

Yes — and it would make much more sense.

 

[tzfujimino]

Will it be proper English if 'Always' is replaced with 'Never' which is a negative adverb?

Hello, Matthew.
Yes. That's a proper English sentence.

(Edit) Cross-posted with Rover