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Anonymous Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
Right Dilocation construction in English
Hi, all:
I'm a native Chinese speaker learning English as a foreign language, and I'm interested in word order of English. I have a doubt considering the use of an "unusal" sentence pattern. What follow are two sentences: (1) is the direct statement, whereas (2) is a sentence involving "right dislocation" construction.
(1) "Sarah made the cookies."
(2) "She made the cookies, Sarah did."
Both mean the same thing. I'd like to ask native speakers of English:
1. When do you use (2)? (On what occasions? Written or spoken?)
2. Why do you use the pattern rather than say (1) directly? Are there pragmatic or semantic concerns?
Thank you for reply.
I'm a native Chinese speaker learning English as a foreign language, and I'm interested in word order of English. I have a doubt considering the use of an "unusal" sentence pattern. What follow are two sentences: (1) is the direct statement, whereas (2) is a sentence involving "right dislocation" construction.
(1) "Sarah made the cookies."
(2) "She made the cookies, Sarah did."
Both mean the same thing. I'd like to ask native speakers of English:
1. When do you use (2)? (On what occasions? Written or spoken?)
2. Why do you use the pattern rather than say (1) directly? Are there pragmatic or semantic concerns?
Thank you for reply.
Top answer
The basic purpose of #2 is to add emphasis. In spoken English, we may also say 'She made the cookies' and then decide we should have said 'Sarah made the cookies'. In other words, 'Sarah did' can simply be an afterthought.
- The basic purpose of #2 is to add emphasis.
- In spoken English, we may also say 'She made the cookies' and then decide we should have said 'Sarah made the cookies'.
- In other words, 'Sarah did' can simply be an afterthought.
- I almost never use or hear #2.
- To me, it sounds old-fashioned and, hence, rather 'folksy'.
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2 Answers
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The basic purpose of #2 is to add emphasis.
In spoken English, we may also say 'She made the cookies' and then decide we should have said 'Sarah made the cookies'. In other words, 'Sarah did' can simply be an afterthought.
I almost never use or hear #2. To me, it sounds old-fashioned a
In spoken English, we may also say 'She made the cookies' and then decide we should have said 'Sarah made the cookies'. In other words, 'Sarah did' can simply be an afterthought.
I almost never use or hear #2. To me, it sounds old-fashioned a
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Anonymous1. When do you use (2)? (On what occasions? Written or spoken?)I virtually never use (2), either in writing or speaking. If I said it, it would be just as a joke, a sort of imitation of people who speak like that, of whom there are very few anymore these days, as far as I know.
CJ
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