"This I know today, but back then..."
What does this word order show? What's the rule?
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probably - unaware of this in past – alpa Jul 06 '15 at 23:09
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The word order shows nothing. It's just a "theatrical" way to reinforce the distinction between now and then. – Hot Licks Jul 06 '15 at 23:10
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7"This I know" instead of "I know this" puts more emphasis on "this." – stevesliva Jul 06 '15 at 23:13
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1It has an 'Old Fashioned' feel, maybe to imply old-fashioned values. – Hugh Jul 06 '15 at 23:55
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What makes you think there's some "rule"? – tchrist Jul 07 '15 at 04:01
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Your example uses preposing, a type of noncanonical word order: a type of information packaging construction. Preposing has pragmatic constraints--which could probably be considered to be pragmatic "rules". Quite a bit of stuff has been written on this topic of preposing and the pragmatics related to it. :) – F.E. Jul 07 '15 at 08:11
2 Answers
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In "This I know" there is no subject-verb inversion. Inversion would be This know I or better, as Jonathan says below: This do I know.
"this" is placed at the beginning of the sentence which is called fronting. The word in unusual position gets more emphasis or dynamic.
You should change your headline. Maybe: This I know. Inversion or fronting?
rogermue
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You are correct. OSV is not inversion. One merely fronts the O to give it more emphasis. This was once done more frequently, but it is still used. – tchrist Jul 07 '15 at 02:49
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In order to be an inversion, it should have been written like this: "This do I know"... as a question. We use it to stress the feeling of saying the phrase, among other reasons.
