A Consideration of Inversions in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

There is a linguistic phenomenon called inversion among various linguistic phenomena. Usually, an inverted sentence means a sentence changed from S-V pattern to V-S pattern in word-order. Then, why and in which cases would this inverted word-order occur? The aim of this paper is, first, to analyze inverted sentences, make clear their meanings and functions, and pursue why they are caused to occur. The result is that the inversion occurs for the reason of emphasis, two kinds of actuality, rhythm, and by any of five categories of grammatical expressions being shifted to the front-position. Then, among a lot of British and American novels, we choose the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1775–1817), who was a famous long novel writer in England. Because she is said to have a fine writing style with plain and skillful descriptions which might use various kinds of inverted sentences in it. Thus, the second aim of this paper is to collect and classify all the instances of inversion from her work,and analyze them within the framework of traditional English grammar and text grammar, occasionally referring to transformational grammar. First, we collect one hundred and thirty-four instances of inversions, divide them into, first, seven patterns, and next, within these patterns, divide them into twenty-five sub-patterns based on their forms. After that, we analyze and discuss them, and as a result, we suggest some features of inversions in Pride and Prejudice.