This book presents a comprehensive corpus-based analysis of full-verb inversion in present-day English. The author examines the distribution and pragmatic functions of full-verb inversion in different fictional and non-fictional text styles as well as in the spoken language. Surprisingly enough, inversion in oral communication has not yet received the attention it deserves, since most work on the topic has been restricted to the written language. It has often been claimed that full-verb inversion occurs mainly in written discourse, but these claims have not yet been backed up by a detailed corpus-based analysis. This book provides a more conclusive picture of the distribution of full inversion in speech and writing and analyses the distinct pragmatic functions that the construction serves in these two modes of communication.

Contents: English Linguistics - English Language Research - Corpus Linguistics - Pragmatics - Discourse Analysis - Word-order.

Carlos Prado-Alonso is a member of the research project Variation, Linguistic Change and Grammaticalization based in the Department of English and German of the University of Santiago de Compostela. He works as a full-time researcher on a three-year postdoctoral grant from the Autonomous Government of Galicia.