Thursday, 26 March 2015

grammar - Varying word order for stylistic effect


Sometimes, for stylistic or rhetorical effect, one wants to delay mentioning a word/concept until the end of a sentence. For example, it's often best to save the punchline for the very end:



I was happy to discover that my ex was sentenced to life in prison for arson, murder, and jaywalking.



If we directly translate into a Japanese-style word order—




((My ex)-NOM (Arson, murder, and jaywalking)-for ((life in prison)-to sentenced) was) that I discover happy was.



—the utterance hemorrhages much of "jaywalking"'s comic effect into the bog of unnecessary background and framing information.


Whereas English word order naturally places the word where we want it, if we instead wanted to place it somewhere else, English makes available alternative or periphrastic phrasings, such as "x did y." → "It was y that x did."


So likewise: what techniques or periphrastic constructions are available in Japanese to move words or clauses?




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