Abstract
The paper examines contextual and emphatic fronting in academic prose, fiction narrative and fiction dialogue in order to ascertain whether the types of fronting can serve as a style marker. The differences in the distribution and their effect on style are assumed to be connected with the respective FSP structures: in emphatic fronting the fronted element is the rheme, whereas in contextual fronting it is the diatheme. Hence emphatic fronting displays a prominent deviation from the basic distribution of communicative dynamism, whereas contextual fronting achieves agreement with it. As compared with the unmarked postverbal ordering, emphatic fronting intensifies the emphatic/emotional character of the content being expressed, which is a feature of speech, while contextual fronting serves as a direct link with what precedes, hence contributes to textual cohesion, which is a characteristic of academic prose, with fiction narrative presumably occupying an intermediate position. The results of the study show more types of fronting with diversified structures and less clear-cut relations between the types of frontings and the examined text sorts.
Highlights
The subject of this paper is the fronting of clause elements in three different text sorts, examined with the aim of finding out whether different types of fronting can serve as a style marker
At the clausal level, displays a prominent deviation from the basic distribution of communicative dynamism – the basic position of the rheme in English being final or pre-final. This imparts to the rheme emphatic or emotive intensification. The connection of these types of fronting with different text sorts follows from the above quotation from Biber et al The fronted element in contextual fronting has a linking function: it serves as a direct link between what precedes and what follows, which contributes to cohesion, a feature of academic prose and of narrative parts of fiction
As appears from the figures, the fronted elements in the three text sorts show a clearcut distinction between academic writing and narrative text on the one hand, and fiction dialogue on the other, with respect to the distribution of the integrated and non-integrated clause elements
Summary
The subject of this paper is the fronting of clause elements in three different text sorts, examined with the aim of finding out whether different types of fronting can serve as a style marker. Attention is primarily paid to contextual and emphatic fronting, which are examined in academic prose, fiction narrative, and fiction dialogue representing conversation, on the assumption that the two types of fronting will display different distribution in these text types. Support for it is found in Biber et al (1999: 910), cf. This imparts to the rheme emphatic or emotive intensification The connection of these types of fronting with different text sorts follows from the above quotation from Biber et al The fronted element in contextual fronting has a linking function: it serves as a direct link between what precedes and what follows, which contributes to cohesion, a feature of academic prose and of narrative parts of fiction. On the other hand emphatic fronting involves emotion and emphasis, which are to be sought in fiction, primarily in dialogue
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