Focus structures. a.ait taleb

TEFL & ICT Master Program 2012-2013
General English course

Prepared by Abdelaziz Ait Taleb

Supervised by: - Ms Jennifer Evans
- Youssef Tamer

Outline
 Introduction / Definition
I- Cleft sentences:
A- Form of cleft sentences.
B- Uses of cleft sentences.
II- Fronting
A- Commonly fronted constituents.
B- Uses of fronting.
III- Inversions
A- Lexical inversions
B- Stylistic Inversions
C- Information packaging inversions
IV- Problems that ESL/EFL students have with
focus structures

What’s the difference between these
two sentences:
• A- A Criminal robbed a bank last night.

• B- It was a bank that a criminal robbed last
night.

In the second sentence, “The bank” is
given more prominence.

Definition of focus structures:
• They are the type of sentences that place
certain elements of the basic version of the
sentence (S+V+O) in different positions in
order to make them more prominent.

Cleft-sentences are a variation of basic
declarative sentences. They give prominence
to a focused element through changes that
include splitting the sentence.

Example:
a-I need some rest. ( Basic version)
b- It’s some rest that I need. (it-cleft)
c- What I need is some rest. (Wh-cleft)

a- It clefts:
Example:
Part 1 Part 2

a- Mr Smith has bought a villa. (Basic form)

b- It’s a villa that Mr Smith has bought.
(Focused structure)

Rule: It + Be+ The focused element ( a
villa)+that+ the rest of the sentence.

Elements that can be focused:
 Noun phrases:
eg. It was Ikram who won the first prize.
 Time adverbials:
It was last year that he got promoted.
 Adjuncts of purpose:
It’s to cooperate that I ask you to work in groups.
 Prepositional phrases:
It was for his family’s comfort that he was working hard.
 Adjective phrase:
It’s flaming red that is her favorite color.
 Subject interrogative clause:
It’s how you organize your ideas that matters.
 Adverbial subordinate clause:
It’s because the event is special that I have decided to attend.

B- Wh-clefts:
Example:
Part 1 Part 2
a- She bought a beautiful necklace.
The focused element

B- What she bought was a beautiful necklace.

Rule: Wh-word +Part1+ Be + Part2

Elements that can be focused:
 Noun phrases (object/ subject):
-What people need is social justice. (object)
- Who won’t be at the party is Bob. (subject)
 Infinitive complement:
what she hates is to be late.
 That complement:
what he claims is that the Moroccan football team can win
the CAN.
 Interrogative complement:
what I don’t understand is why you always blame me.
 Gerund complement + Subject gerund clause:
-what I really hate is being kept waiting for such a long
time!
-what stresses me is having to explain all these details.

 Verb phrases:
- what he does is repair cars.
 Adjective and prepositional phrases are not easily focused:
- What her boss is, in my opinion, is extremely arrogant.
(Adj P)
- When I revise my lessons is at night (PP)

Reversed wh-clefts:
Many wh-clefts can be reversed. The focused element
occurs at the beginning followed by be+ what:
example:
- what I really need is a vacation.
-A vacation is what I really need.

 Uses of it-clefts:
 Contradict:
“No, it was Tom who called me, not Bob.”
 Argue a point.
Eg: it is lack of communication between cultures
that leads to misunderstanding

 Establish a topic ( eg. A lead in sentence to an
article)

Uses of wh-clefts:

 Resume a topic.
 Present the gist of preceding conversation.
Eg: “so, what you are saying is that…..”

 Contradict something and present an alternative
interpretation.

 Clarify a possible misunderstanding ( what I
meant is…)

 Express the speaker’s stance or attitude. (What
surprises me is that...)

II- Fronting:

Fronting refers to the movement of an element
to the start of a sentence to give it
prominence.

A- Commonly Fronted Constituents:
:
I don’t understand him Him I don’t understand
:
He runs along the road Along the road he runs
:
He wasn’t smart Smart he wasn’t.
:
In order to succeed, you have to work hard.
:
-Why he is absent I don’t know. (interrog. complement)
-That she is honest I don’t doubt. (that complement)
:
Discovered quite by accident, the new substance has
revolutionized the computer industry.

Uses of Fronting:

Why he disappeared no one knows.
:
Pretty they aren’t, but affordable they are.
:
Overwhelmed by years of oppression, people in
some Arab countries rushed to streets to protest
against their rulers.
and provide a smooth
transition between old and new information. (at
the beginning of a paragraph)

III- Inversions:
Inversion moves elements to the beginning of
a sentence (like Fronting). In addition, it
simultaneously moves the subject to follow
the verb.
Ex: a- George Price is sprawled in the foreground.

B-Sprawled in the foreground is George Price.

emphasized emphasized

They are triggered by the presence of a particular
word, including:
 here/there used with ‘come’, ‘go’
‘be’ or ‘lie’. ( Ex: Here come the cops! )

eg: never, seldom, rarely , not often, only.
Example: Never have I seen such a terrific player.
: not only, neither, nor, so, as.
Example: he doesn’t understand, and neither do I .

They are alternatives to specific grammatical
structures, used by the writer to achieve a stylistic
effect. They include:
.
E.g: Had Merry respected the regulations, she
wouldn’t have been fired.
, used
in poetry.
E.g: -into the valley of death rode the six hundred. (inverted)
-The six hundred rode into the valley of death (uninverted)

They are different inversions which distribute
the information in the sentence in a way more
appropriate to the discourse context. They are
journalists’ favorite device. These include
inversions used :

eg: Down with the ball comes Roan.

Eg: investigators were at the scene of the crash by 10 am. Dead were
the pilot, Ralph Halsott,29, Kankakee; and two passengers, Susan
Galston,43,Milwaukee; and William Johnson,52, Chicago.

Example:
Reports show that many passengers sustain trauma to the
body and broken limbs in this type of all roll-over accident.
Far more serious are the severe head injuries that cause
bruising of the brain

E.g:
• Complicating the white house calculus is soaring hostility
on Capitol Hill, which some officials call “off the charts”
( inverted sentence)

• Soaring hostility on Capitol Hill, which some officials call
“off the charts”, is complicating the White House calculus.
( uninverted sentence)

that they are
witnessing an event unfold before their eyes,
and achieve the immediate observer effect.

•
Example:
Ludio is conscientious. He bends closely to his work. He
unscrews the plate and removes it from the door. Behind the
plate is a chiseled cavity. Inside the cavity is a polythene bag.
Inside the bag are several smaller bags. Inside each of them is
a …..

IV-Problems that ESL/EFL students
have with focus structures:
Although this area hasn’t been widely
investigated, the new research has revealed that:

 ESL/EFL learners tend to avoid using focus
structures because they are infrequent. They
don’t use them productively.
 Even advanced learners aren’t sufficiently aware
of the discourse functions of the focus
constructions.

• Inversion with Negative Adverbs (Portuguese,
Spanish)
Example:

-Raramente o jorge esquece de fazer o seu dever de casa
rarely George forgets to do his homework

This example shows that In Portuguese, the subject-verb inversion
does not occur in sentences that begin with negative adverbs.
Therefore, Portuguese speakers tend to make mistakes when they
produce such English sentences.

Notice:

The activities related to this presentation are
scheduled for the next class.

So, Get well prepared!

Focus structures. a.ait taleb

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