International Scientific and Practical Conference “WORLD SCIENCE” ISSN 2413-1032

PHILOSOPHY AND PHILOLOGY

WORD ORDER AND INVERSION

Karimova Dilara Abuzer
Azerbaijan Republic, Sumgayit State University, Foreign Languages Department, Senior Teacher
Abstract: The primary word orders that are of interest are the constituent order of clause –
the relative order of subject, object, and verb. Most English sentences conform to the
Subject+Verb+Object word order. This means that Subject comes before the Verb, which comes
before the Object. In different situation we can meet disorders, and we try to explain it in the following
article. Analyses were realized according to grammatical structure of the sentences.
Key words: inversion, word-order, disorder, grammar, semantic meaning
Introduction:
Standard Word Order is the most common sentence pattern in English. The SUBJECT
comes before the VERB.
SUBJECT+ VERB
That book was heavy.
With inverted word order, the MAIN VERB or an AUXILIARY VERB comes before the subject.
The most common use of inverted word order in English is in forming DIRECT QUESTIONS.
Was that book heavy? or Can you lift the book?
A question that begins with a question-forming word like why, when, where, or how cannot be
answered with a yes or no: Why did the book fall?
Some kind of information must be provided to answer such a question; the answer cannot be
simply yes or no because the question is not “Did the book fall?” Information on why it fell is needed:
for example, It was too heavy for me.
When you use negatives such as never, hardly ever, seldom, rarely, not only, or nor to start a
CLAUSE, use inverted order. These sentence pairs show the differences, first in standard order and
then in inverted order. [1.56-62] f.ex
I have never seen a more exciting movie. [standard order]
Never have I seen a more exciting movie. [inverted order]
She is not only a talented artist but also an excellent musician.
Not only is she a talented artist, but she is also an excellent musician
When do we use inversion?
Of course, we use inversion in questions. But we also sometimes use inversion in other cases,
when we are not making a question. We use inversion in several different situations in English.
Inversion just means putting the verb before the subject. We usually do it in question forms:
- Normal sentence: You are tired. (The subject is „you‟. It‟s before the verb „are‟.)
- Question form: Are you tired? (The verb „are‟ is before the subject „you‟. They have changed
places. This is called „inversion‟.)
In most English verb tenses, when we want to use inversion, we just move the verb to before
the subject. If there‟s more than one verb, because a verb tense has auxiliary verbs for example, we
move the first verb. There are two verb tenses where we just change the places of the verb and subject:
Present simple with ‘be’ : am I / are you / is he
Past simple with ‘be’: were you / was she
With other verb tenses, we change the place of the subject and the auxiliary verb (the first
auxiliary verb if there is more than one). We don‟t move the other parts of the verb:
Present continuous: am I going / are you going
Past continuous: was he going / were they going
Present perfect: have we gone / has she gone
Present perfect continuous: has she been going / have they been going
Past perfect: had you gone
Past perfect continuous: had he been going
Future simple: will they go
Future continuous: will you be going
Future perfect: will they have gone

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International Scientific and Practical Conference “WORLD SCIENCE” ISSN 2413-1032

Future perfect continuous: will she have been going

Modal verbs: should I go / would you go
In some situation usually, we put the expression at the beginning of the sentence to emphasize
what we‟re saying. It makes our sentence sound surprising or striking or unusual. It also sounds quite
formal. If you don‟t want to give this impression, you can put the negative expression later in the
sentence in the normal way:
Seldom have I seen such beautiful work.
I have seldom seen such beautiful work. (Adverb phrase inversion)
We only use inversion when the adverb modifies the whole phrase and not when it modifies
the noun: Hardly anyone passed the exam. (No inversion.) [2.112-115]
In linguistics, inversion is any of several grammatical constructions where two expressions switch
their canonical order of appearance, that is, they invert. The most frequent type of inversion in English is
subject– auxiliary inversion, where an auxiliary verb changes places with its subject; this often occurs in
questions, such as Is he reading?, where the subject he is switched with the auxiliary is. In many other
languages – especially those with freer word order than English – inversion can take place with a variety of
verbs (not just auxiliaries) and with other syntactic categories as well [3 internet resource].
Certain other languages, in particular other Germanic languages and Romance languages use
inversion in broadly similar ways to English, such as in question formation. The restriction of inversion to
auxiliary verbs does not generally apply in these languages; subjects can be inverted with any type of verb,
although particular languages have their own rules and restrictions. For example, in French, in German. As
German, inversion can occur as a consequence of the requirement that the verb appear as the second
constituent in a declarative sentence. Thus if another element (such as an adverbial phrase or clause)
introduces the sentence, the verb must come next, followed by the subject. An example is: Ein Jahr nach
dem Autounfall sieht er wirklich gut aus, literally "A year after the car accident, looks he really good". The
same occurs in some other West Germanic languages [4 internet resource].
Syntactic inversion has played an important role in the history of linguistic theory because of
the way it interacts with question formation and topic and focus constructions.
Result: The particular analysis of inversion can vary greatly depending on the theory of
syntax that one pursues. In languages with free word-order, inversion of subject and verb or of other
elements of a clause can occur more freely, often for pragmatic reasons rather than as part of a specific
grammatical construction.
REFERENCES
1. Culicover, P. 1997. Principles and parameters: An introduction to syntactic theory. Oxford,
UK: Oxford University Press.
2. Greenbaum, S. and R. Quirk. 1990. A student's grammar of the English language. Harlow,
Essex, England: Longman, 504p
3. Source URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inversion_%28linguistics%29
4. © 2014 www.perfect-english-grammar.com

IMPORTANCE OF ELECTRON RESOURSES IN THE

TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Ph.D student Mammadova Zhala Eldar
Azarbaijan Republic, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Linguistics Institute named after
I.Nasimi
Abstract: The main focus is directed to the role of electron dictionaries and electron resources
in teaching foreign languages and differences from print dictionaries.
Key words: electron dictionary, translation, tradition dictionary, monolingual dictionary

INTRODUCTION
Electronic dictionaries include new search capabilities, not found in traditional dictionaries
that could meet users‟ needs. The aim of the thesis is to explain the importance of electron dictionaries
and available electron resources in language teaching lessons.

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