ANSWERS TO EXERCISES: CHAPTER 9

1 ANSWERS TO EXERCISES: CHAPTER 9 1. Focus strategies (fronting, clefting) Here are the corresponding basic versions with the function and category of the focused phrases. (a) With the women and the children, the old and the unfit, the Master remained behind. The Master remained behind [with the women and the children, the old and the unfit = Adverbial:PP]. (b) That you MUST NOT do, for any reason. You MUST NOT do [that = Object:NP], for any reason. (c) Very puffed he was, when he got to Bywater. He was [very puffed = Subject Complement:AdjP], when he got to Bywater. (d) Tidings they had gathered in secret ways. They had gathered [tidings = Object:NP] in secret ways. (e) Very comforting you are to be sure, growled Thorin. You are [very comfortin g = Subject Complement:AdjP] to be sure, growled Thorin. (f) Lake it was, wide and deep and deadly cold. It was [lake = Subject Complement:NP], wide and deep and deadly cold. (g) Goblin he thought good, when he could get it. He thought [goblin = Object:NP] good, when he could get it. (h) Up, up, the dwarves went, and they met no sign of any living thing. The dwarves went [up, up = Adverbial:AdvP], and they met no sign of any living thing. (i) At that they gazed and wondered. They gazed [at that = Adverbial:PP] and wondered. (j) Swiftly along this they ran. They ran [swiftly = Adverbial:AdvP] along this [Adverbial:PP]. Here are the corresponding cleft constructions. The ones that aren t acceptable are those that try to focus subject complements: (a) Gollum was really hungry. Introducing English Grammar, second edition, published by Routledge K. Börjars and K. Burridge 1

2 [*It was really hungry Gollum was. This is an AdjP functioning as complement.] a subject (b) He was a Gollum as dark as darkness. [*It was a Gollum he was as dark as darkness. This is an NP functioning as a subject complement.] (c) He had a little boat, and he rowed about quite quietly on the lake. [It was a little boat he had.] (d) Actually Gollum lived on a slimy island of rock in the middle of the lake. [It was on a slimy island of rock in the middle of the lake that Gollum lived. This is grammatical but sounds a little clumsy unless the relative clause is ellipted and it would be more usual to do that here because it contains uninteresting material.] (e) Bilbo could not see him. [It was Bilbo who could not see him. ] Here are the corresponding non-cleft versions: (a) It was just then that Gandalf came back. [Gandalf came back just then.] (b) It was the wizard s voice that had kept the trolls bickering and quarrelling. [The wizard s voice had kept the trolls bick ering and quarrelling.] (c) It was he that made the dwarves begin the dangerous search on the western slopes for the secret door. [He made the dwarves begin the dangerous search on the western slopes for the secret door.] (d) It is always poor me that has to get them out of their difficulties. [Always poor me has to get them out of their difficulties. Note that two constituents (the adverbial and subject) appear to have been focused in this cleft. It sounds strange to simply focus the adverbial always:?it is always that poor me has to get them out of their difficulties.] (e) It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. [Bilbo stopped at this point.] 2. Given new strategies (existentials, extraposition) Here are the existential sentences: (a) A good deal of food was jumbled carelessly on shelves. Introducing English Grammar, second edition, published by Routledge K. Börjars and K. Burridge 2

3 [There was good deal of food jumbled carelessly on shelves.] (b) Black squirrels were in the wood. [There were black squirrels in the wood.] (c) Now a glimmer of light came before them. [There came now a glimmer of light before them.] (d) Strange things are living in pools and lakes in the hearts of mountains. [There are strange things living in pools and lakes in the hearts of mountains.] (e) No safe paths are in this part of the world. [There are no safe paths in this part of the world.] Existential there versus adverbial there: (a) And there in rows stood great jars and vessels filled with a wealth that could not be guessed. [adverbial there] (b) There was a hill some way off with trees on it, pre tty thick in parts. [existential there] (c) And far away, its dark head in a torn cloud, there loomed the Mountain! [existential there; with appropriate emphasis this could also be adverbial there] (d) And there he lay, a vast red -golden dragon, fast asleep. [adverbial there] (e) In the middle there was lying a great oak -trunk with many lopped branches beside it. [existential there; perhaps with appropriate emphasis this could be adverbial there] As a demonstrative adverb, adverbial there indicates position or locality. Existential there is never stressed; it occupies the position of the logical subject, which comes later; the ambiguity of (c) can be captured by comparing There comes the bus! and There comes a time. Paraphrases with extraposition: (a) That it was Thror s grandson not Thror himself that had come back did not bother them at all. It did not bother them at all that it was Thror s grandson not Thror himself that had come back. Introducing English Grammar, second edition, published by Routledge K. Börjars and K. Burridge 3

4 (b) To hunt the whole mountain till he had caught the th ief and had torn and trampled him was his one thought. It was his one thought to hunt the whole mountain till he had caught the thief and had torn and trampled him. Out of context, the extraposed versions sound more natural. As we described in this chapter, the motivation for extraposition is the principle of end weight in other words, the tendency for heavy constituents (i.e. long and complex) to appear late in the sentence, and the heavier the clause, the more likely that extraposition will occur. These are heavy clauses and putting them up front and not at the end (which would be more usual) is marked it is almost certainly a deliberate strategy of Tolkien s to draw our attention to the information they contain. 3. Given new strategies (passives) We have bolded all the passive verb forms in the following extract and, where appropriate, have noted why we think Tolkien might have chosen the agentless passive. Long ago in my grandfather Thror s time our family was driven out of the far North [the agent here has already been mentioned; old information], and came back with all their wealth and their tools to this Mountain on the map. It had been discovered by my far ancestor. I believe they found a good deal of gold and a great many jewels too. An yway they grew immensely rich and famous, and my Grandfather was King under the Mountain again, and treated with great reverence by the mortal men, who lived to the South, and were gradually spreading up the Running River as far as the valley overshadowed by the Mountain [note, overshadowed is best analysed as an adjective here]. They built the merry town of Dale there in those days. Kings used to send for our smiths, and reward even the least skilful most richly. Fathers would beg us to take their sons as apprentices, and pay us handsomely. So my grandfather s halls became full of armour and jewels. Undoubtedly that was what brought the dragon. Dragons steal gold and jewels; and they guard their plunder as long as they live (which is practically for ever, unless they are killed [an agentless passive because it is irrelevant who does the killing here]), and never enjoy a brass ring of it. There were lots of dragons in the North in those days, and gold was probably getting scarce up there, with the dwarves fly ing south or getting killed [an agentless passive, again because it is irrelevant who does the killing here; interesting to compare the two passive auxiliaries in these last sentences; as described in Chapter 6, the interpretation of the get-passive is that the subject is somehow more involved in the event; in other words, it provides a more agent-like reading of the subject in the last example, we get the idea that the dwarves were somehow responsible for their demise ]. Where possible we have switched a ll the passive forms into the active and made all the active forms into passive : Introducing English Grammar, second edition, published by Routledge K. Börjars and K. Burridge 4

5 Long ago in my grandfather Thror s time they drove our family out of the far North, and [the family] came back with all their wealth and their tools to this Mountain on the map. My far ancestor had discovered it. I believe a good deal of gold was found by them and a great many jewels too. Anyway they grew immensely rich and famous, and my Grandfather was King under the Mountain again, and with great reverence the mortal men treated him, who lived to the South, and were gradually spreading up the Running River as far as the valley overshadowed by the Mountain. The merry town of Dale was built by them there in those days. Kings used to send for our smiths, and even the least skilful were rewarded most richly. We would be begged by fathers to take their sons as apprentices, and would be paid handsomely. So my grandfather s halls became full of armour and jewels. Undoubtedly the dragon was brought by that [we undid the cleft here to o]. Gold and jewels are stolen by dragons; and their plunder is guarded by them as long as they live (which is practically for ever, unless someone kills them), and a brass ring of it is never enjoyed (by them). There were lots of dragons in the North in those days, and gold was probably getting scarce up there, with the dwarves flying south or someone killing them. As we described in this chapter, old information frequently coincides with something called the topic the part of the sentence indicating wh at is being written or talked about. It s the perspective from which a sentence may be viewed. The rest of the sentence makes some sort of statement about the topic and this is called the comment. In the natural order of things, the comment (providing the new information) follows on from its topic. What was new information then becomes old and is taken up again at the beginning of the next sentence. We described this as a kind of chaining effect the arrangement of old followed by new is what gives the pas sage its coherence. When we made all the passive sentences active and the active sentences passive, we reversed this order; there was no common thread to follow. Not only were there clumsy aspects of word order (and pronoun assignment), it also became diff icult to follow the plot of the story because the whole point of the passage was lost. 4. DISCOURSE STRATEGIES Below we have identified the special discourse strategies and suggested why Tolkien might have employed these techniques. (a) This was made by Thror, your grandfather, Thorin. Passive; in this case the new information is clearly Th ror (the subject, represented by the pronoun this, represents an already established entity) passive ensures that the new information appears in end position. (b) Each of these could be reached by paths that ran down from the main mass of the Mountain in the centre. Introducing English Grammar, second edition, published by Routledge K. Börjars and K. Burridge 5

6 Another passive, this time the agentless passive; it would seem that the agent here is non-essential information (by people) and this construction allows it to be omitted. (c) Already behind him among the goblin dead lay many men and many dwarves, and many a fair elf that should have lived yet long ages merrily in the wood. This shows a combination of fronting and inversion; the stacking of adverbials in initial position and the inversion of the subject and main verb allow the subject, heavy with modification (and full of new, exciting information), to appear last. (d) Gandalf it was who spoke, for Bilbo was fallen quiet and drowsy. This shows an unusual combination of fronting and clefting; all focus here is on Gandalf the clefted version would be It was Gandalf who spoke and fronting throws even more emphasis onto Gandalf. (e) It took him ages to get the beastly stuff out of his eyes and eyebro ws. Extraposition; all the newsworthy information is in the extraposed clause and its natural position is towards the end of the sentence. (f) Then in crept the hobbit. Subject verb inversion and fronting; the sentence begins with a conjunct then and the adverbial of place is fronted reversing the order of the subject and verb (of movement) also makes for a more dramatic effect (also builds a little suspense by delaying the subject). (g) On this western side there were fewer signs of the dragon s mar auding feet. Fronting and existential construction; the existential construction, together with the fronting (of the adverbial), allows the new information to appear last it is given more emphasis. (h) Right in the middle of the fight up came Balin. Subject verb inversion and fronting; the sentence begins with two fronted adverbials (right in the middle of the fight and up) as in (f), reversing the order of the subject and verb (of movement) adds more drama, by delaying the mention of Balin. (i) It was a good story, that of yours, said Beorn. Right-dislocation; the subject constituent that of yours has been moved out of initial position and placed at the end of the sentence, and a pronoun appears in its place. This is a marked construction that is m ore usually found in speech (as it is here) it draws the hearer s attention to the right -dislocated constituent. (Note the intonation break indicated by the comma.) (j) Water is not easy to find there, nor food. Introducing English Grammar, second edition, published by Routledge K. Börjars and K. Burridge 6

7 Tough movement; the neutral version would be It is not easy to find water there, nor food, but water has been moved leftwards and turned into the subject, giving it more emphasis. (k) As for little fellow bobbing on the mat it almost made him really fierce. There is no term for this const ruction; as for is one of the numerous expressions that English has for highlighting a topic, usually a resumed topic, as in this case. Introducing English Grammar, second edition, published by Routledge K. Börjars and K. Burridge 7