by Juan Claudio S. Castro
English grammar serves as a conduit of different meanings and psyches. Together with vocabulary, it facilitates the conveyance of particular ideas and attitudes through a specific construction and arrangement of words and phrases. Thinking of expressing desires? There’s the present subjunctive. How about mentioning contrary-to-fact circumstances? You have the past subjunctive. Need to express something indirectly? The passive-voice structure can help you pull it off. Want to ask politely but not restricted to “please”? Politeness constructions such as vocatives, possibility markers, and “let us”-requests ask that way too. Tired of using “will” or “shall” and “be” + “going to” + infinitive form-verb in speaking of the future? The simple-present verb and the present-progressive verb are just around. These are but a few thoughts with corresponding grammatical structures in English, each construction resembling a particular meaning through a discrete configuration of words and phrases.
There is one crucial idea that is integral in nearly every communicative circumstance. Emphasis. By emphasis, we undertake to inform the recipient of the message that what we try to say, often among all things we already expressed, is the most important to know or must be paid closest attention. English grammar offers sundry constructions of emphasis, most of which are no walk in the park to grasp. This article, which comes in a series of four parts, lays down and elucidates the most common emphatic structures in English, and guides readers as to how to swing these effectively in conversations.
Before be dive into these structures, let’s settle a few things up. Since emphasis is a form of communication, in this composition, I shall use the basic communication terms “sender” to refer to the speaker or writer and “receiver” as to the hearer or reader. Through this denotation, to determine whether an emphatic structure applies only in writing or in both writing and speech is no longer necessary. As you will observe, some constructions surface in writing but not in utterances. Some, of course, appear in both communicative modes. Another thing is phrases. Common to us is the knowledge that a phrase is a combination of words that does not have a subject or verb or both; therefore, to make a phrase is to pull together at least two words sans a subject or verb or both. True. This is a useful introductory definition of phrases and a crystal clear distinction from words, clauses, and sentences. In this piece, however, when you encounter the word “phrase,” it can mean not only a word set, but also just a single word. In the world of English grammar, the basic sentence components such as subject, verb, subject complement, indirect object, direct object, and object complement are identified through phrases. Examples of phrases are noun phrase, verb phrase, and prepositional phrase. In “Margaret gives Wade a cup of coffee” we can see five phrases—the subject “Margaret” as a noun phrase, the verb “gives” as a verb phrase, the indirect object “Wade” as another noun phrase, and the direct object “a cup of coffee” as the third noun phrase. Notice that the third noun phrase conforms with the abovementioned elementary definition of phrase with respect to word count. The two preceding noun phrases and the verb phrase, however, are also considered phrases despite their one-word structure in line with the grammatical classification of these words in relation to basic sentence components.
The most basic emphatic structure in English is plain, straightforward sentences. These pertain to statements that directly verbalize what’s on the mind of the sender and are absent of interpretation-restricting qualifiers, modifiers, and, preferably, disjuncts. Simply put, statements free of fluff. Such a sentence typically doesn’t carry attributive adjectives and post-modifiers. It doesn’t tell the receiver what to expect about the things denoted by the sentence elements, particularly the subject, verb, object, and complement. Plain, straightforward sentences are solid, austere, laser-focused expressions that reverberates in the ears of the receiver, thereby enshrine the message imparted. Compare “The lovely narrative composition written profoundly by that shy kid is just impressive” and “The narrative composition written by that kid is impressive.” The first sentence, in attempting to be as specific as how the sender perceives the situation, deposits in the receiver’s mind details each describing its main word, thereby clouding his mind, splitting or redirecting his attention to the characteristics of the sentence elements, and burying the objective to express that the write-up is impressive. Opposite of it is the second sentence, which communicates the mere idea of the superb quality of the composition—the very thought the sender wants to express—thereby empowers the whole sentence. Through plain, straightforward sentences, the sender can highlight a meaning by keeping the receiver’s focus to the thought without the interference of diversionary information.
The second grammatical construction of emphasis is active sentences. An active sentence puts a thought in the spotlight in a twofold fashion: it directly conveys the thought of the sender, and it allows him to deliver an idea without a sense of reservation, self-restraint, and concealment. Such a sentence connotes that the sender doesn’t pull punches and isn’t holding back on his word. Specifically, it explicitly mentions or even identifies the performer of the action, the particular action conducted, and often the recipient of the action. The accentuating arm of an active sentence can be easily grasped upon looking at its flip equivalent, a passive sentence. In the passive “A refund is demanded by the aggrieved customer” or “A refund is demanded,” a sound of softness, indirectness, and reservedness can be felt compared with the active sentence “The aggrieved customer demands a refund,” which transmits the meaning expressly and directly. Active sentences empower messages through crisp, straightforward conveyance of ideas.
The grammatical distinction between active sentences and passive sentences lies in the position of the primary noun phrases and the form of the action verb. The primary noun phrases in a sentence are the subject, direct object, and indirect object. Active sentences put the performer of the action as the subject, and the direct object and indirect object in their post-verb positions. As to the appearance of the verb, it surfaces not in past participle form. On the contrary, passive sentences take the direct object or indirect object as subject and enlists an action verb in past participle form introduced by a “be” verb. The circuitous tone of passive sentences emanates from the conversion of the dynamic sense of the verb into a descriptive role, that is, describing the subject that receives the action denoted by this verb.
Tune in next week as we dig up four more emphatic constructions in English, all of which amplify expressions through the lead of economical signifiers. Despite the brevity of their emphatic agents, these grammatical structures assure their master that his message gets onto the podium and resounds all the way through.
