State University of Moldova

Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures

English Philology Department

Comparative study of the word order in

English and Romanian in Economic texts

Diploma Thesis

Chisinau 2008
Introduction

English Grammar has been studied by grammarians from different countries

and their valuable contribution to the science is manifested through a treatment of
a particular part from the point of view of contrasting it with their mother tongue
counterpart
For ages, the word order has been discussed by many linguists and raised too
many problems. For example in such high inflected languages like Latin and
Sanskrit, word order is relatively free, since the relations between words can be
signaled by inflections, but it is relatively fixed in English.
We have chosen namely this topic because there are a lot of unclear
moments in translating an English sentence and in the same time to keep the same
order in Romanian. We will try to do it in Economic texts. It is not easy to study
word order in comparison with its equivalents in Romanian. It is of a great
importance to understand how to keep properly the correct order of words in
English and its translation in Romanian.
The purpose of this Diploma Thesis is to analyse word order according
different aspects of translation. We will discuss the subject from many points of
view, we will concentrate our attention on the very part of the sentence, we will
demonstrate that there are cases of inversion which do not influence negatively the
translated sentence.
This Paper consists of two chapters, the first representing the theoretical
part, and the second- the practical one. The first part is based in general on the
works of Russian linguists as: Caushanskaia, Ganshina, Krylova; Romanian
linguists as: Badescu, Ganea, Gruia; and English inguists as: Jespersen, Jepson,
Close, Cobb Timothy, Erdman, Henrichs-Kleinen etc.
 The First Chapter represents an overview on the word order and an approach
of the lexical and grammatical characteristics of it.
Our great purpose in this paper is to show that the English language is very
rigid and we cannot change the places of the sentence’s parts at will.
In the practical part we have selected about 150 examples with Economic
sentences from different Economic documents and analyzed them from the
syntactical point of view in order to establish similarities and differences in
Romanian.
By means of such methods like contrastive analysis and synthesis we are
going to investigate the problems that will appear by establishing and explaining in
details the means and ways of translating a sentence keeping the right order.
This topic raises many important questions in English grammar. It is a great
interest since the majority of English learners face the difficulties in translating.
We hope that through this paper we will be able to understand better the word
order and we will be capable to make correct sentences from all points of view.
 Contents

Introduction
Chapter One: A general overview on word order in English and Romanian.

1.1The S-P-O sentence. General remarks.

1.1.1 Position of the Subject;
1.1.2 Position of the Predicate;
1.1.3. Position of the Object;
1.1.1.1 Direct object;
1.1.1.2 Cognate object;
1.1.1.3 Indirect object;
1.1.1.4 Prepositional object;
1.2 Position of attributes;
1.2.1 Close attributes;
1.2.2 Loose attributes;
1.2.3 Position of two or more attributes;
1.2.4 Attributes in post- position;
1.3 Position of adverbials;
1.3.1 Adverbial modifier of Place;
1.3.2 Adverbial modifier of Time;
1.3.3 Adverbial modifier Manner and of Cause;
1.3.4 Adverbial modifier of Purpose and of Concession;
1.3.5 Adverbial modifier of Condition and of Agency;
1.3.6 Adverbial modifier of Frequency and of Degree;
 1.3.7 Adverbial modifier of Measure and of Result.
1.4 Inverted word order;
1.4.1 Full inversion;
1.4.2 Partial inversion.

Chapter Two: Comparative study of word order in English and Romanian in

Economic texts.

2.1 Contrastive analysis of the main units of an Economic sentence.

2.1.1 The S-P-O sentence in corresponding to S-P-O in Romanian;
2.1.2 Slight differences in translating the S-P-O sentence from English into
Romanian;
2.2 Attributes in English and Romanian in Economic sentence;
2.2.1 Position of one attribute in an Economic sentence in English and
Romanian;

2.2.2 Cases with two or more attributes in the English sentence comparing with
the Romanian one;

2.3 Position of different adverbial modifiers in the sentence in English and

Romanian;
Conclusions
 Chapter one: A general overview on word order in
English and Romanian

1.1The S-P-O sentence. General remarks.

When we speak about the simple declarative sentence, we must take into
consideration that its order of words is fixed. To demonstrate this fact we will
concentrate our attention on the problems created by some changes of the main
parts of the sentence.

Word Order in Positive Sentences

For the beginning, remember this simple rule:

subject verb(s) object

I speak English

I can speak English

subject verb(s9 indirect object direct object place time

I will tell you the story at school tomorrow.

Word Order in Negative Sentences

The word order in negative sentences is the same as in affirmative sentences.
Note, however, that in negative sentences we usually need an auxiliary verb:

subject verbs indirect object direct object place time

will not tell you the story at school tomorrow.

 “In comparison with the Romanian language, where we can understand the
meaning very easily, due to flexible forms of the language, in English, which is an
analytical language, the word order is very rigid. An eventual change in the word
order in a Romanian sentence will not modify the meaning of the sentence.” [8,
pag.92]

As for example:

“Vorbesti dumneata Englezeste? ” may be expressed in many variants:

“Dumneata, vorbesti englezeste?”

“Dumneata englezeste vorbesti? ”

“Englezeste vorbesti dumneata?”

“Englezeste dumneata vorbesti?”

“Vorbesti englezeste dumneata?”

Beeing an analytical language, English is very rigid, how we already

mentioned, i.e. the words have a fixed position in the sentence, thus the example is
presented in English only in a way:

“Do you speak English?”[8,pag. 93]

Or if we take an example from literature:

e.g. “Tess knew the name” – we see a simple S-P-O sentence that cannot
exist in another way than this one. In Romanian we translate this sentence in too
many variants:

“ Tess stia numele”

 “Numele Tess il stia”

“Numele il stia Tess”

So, we can easily observe that in Romanian, having more freedom in

organizing the sentences we can express the same thing differently while in
English only one order is accepted.

1.1.1 Position of the SUBJECT

“The word order in English is fixed. We cannot change the position of

different parts of the sentence at will, especially that of the subject and the
object[3, pag.264]”

To illustrate this, the author change the order of words in the following
sentence:

e.g. “Mr. Winter sent the little boy with a message to the next village one
December day.” (Hardy)

If we put the Direct Object in the first place and the subject in the third, the
meaning of the sentence will change altogether because the object, being placed at
the head of the sentence, becomes the subject, being placed after the predicate
becomes the object:

e.g. “The little boy sent Mr. Winter with a message to the next village one
December day.”[3, pag.264] [22, pag.221]

In Romanian such changes of word order are in most cases possible:

e.g. “Sora mea a vazut un film interesant la cinematograf.”

e.g.“Un film interesant a vazut sora mea la cinematograf. ” [22, pag.222]

 e.g. “The young girls formed, indeed, the majority of the band.”/ “Intradevar
procesiunea era in mare parte formata din fete tinere. ” – in this case we can
mention that the Romanian sentence is in passive, that is why the logical way is
kept while translating.

e.g. “Not a soul passed that way for o long while and the faint notes of the
band were the only human sounds audiable within the rim of the blue hills.” /
“Multa vreme nu trecu pe acolo nici un suflet… Nu se auzeau decit sunetele slabe
ale fanfarei singurele sunete omenesti, care rasunau pina departe spre dealurile
albastre.” – The right position of the subject in English is at the beginning of the
sentence, but in Romanian, we know that it is freedom in placing the subject. In
this order of ideas, the translator didn’t take much care about it and put it in the
end; in fact the meaning remains the same. Well, it might be translated in another
way like:

e.g. “Nici un suflet nu trecu pe acolo multa vreme…” or “Nu trecu nici un
suflet pe acolo multa vreme… ” or even “ Pe acolo multa vreme nu trecu nici un
suflet…”

“The parts of the sentence that are very closed to each other must not be
despised. Here is a general rule for a perfect word order:

a) the subject with its attributes( adjectival, substantival )

b) the predicate verb, preceded by the object of time, indirect and direct

c) other types of objects ( adverbial(s) )

Every change interfering this order modify the syntactical rapports and in
fact the meaning of the sentence.” [2, pag.610]
 In her book “Grammar of the English Language”, Ellen Henrichs- Kleinen,
says that a normal order of words in a sentence is:

SUBJECT + PREDICATE + OBJECT

Sally buys a record.

I can speak English.

The millers have a house.

She has written a letter.

He doesn’t like football.

But a specific element is that this order is kept only in the following
sentences, or cases:

1) When at the beginning of the sentence it is used an object:

e.g. “Now they entered the house.”
e.g. “Soon they reached the submit of the hill.”

2) When a secondary sentence precedes the principal one:

e.g. “When I came in, my friend was reading a book.”
e.g. “ When his agitation had cooled he would be at moments
incensed with his poor wife.”

3) At complex tenses:
e.g. “I have written a book.”
e.g. “I have forgiven you for the same.”
 4) In the sentences succeding the direct speech:
e.g. “I’ll come”, he said to me.”
e.g. ““No”, she said becoming grave”[14, pag.239]

e.g. “It was a hazy sunrise in August.” / “Era o zi cetoasa la revarsatul

zorilor.” – There is a “but”; here we deal with a very simple statement that while
being translated into Romanian the order of words changes. That is because of the
impersonal pronoun “it”; The impersonal “it” doesn’t exist in Romanian, that is
why in Romanian the subject changes its place with the predicate.

“The word order is a crucial syntactical problem in many languages. In

English it has pecularities, which have been caused by the concrete and specific
way the language has developed ” [21, pag.211]

O. Jespersen states that the English language has developed a tolerably fixed
word order, which in the majority of cases shows without fail what is the subject of
the S-P-O sentence. This predominance of S-P-O word order makes conspicuous
any change in the sentence and inevitable calls forth a modification in the
intonation design. The most conspicuous place in the sentence are considered the
first and the last: the fist, because the full force of the stress can be felt at the
beginning of an utterance; and the last, because there is a pause after it.”

“This traditional word order has developed a definite intonation design.

Through frequency and repetition this design has imposed itself on any sentence
even though there are changes introduced in the sequence of the component parts.
Hence, the clash between semantically insignificant elements of the sentence when
they are placed is structurally significant position and the intonation, which follows
the recognized pattern” [16. Pag.115]
 “The natural order of words in an English sentence may be altered for some
good reason as long as the alteration does not result in an absurdity. Therefore we
must not draw the conclusion that the subject is always placed first; it may be in
the middle, or even in the end of a sentence.” [15,pag.20]

To illustrate this fact, the author gives some examples:

e.g. “Father had been snoring”

e.g. “My revered father had meanwhile been snoring loudly from the depths
of his easy chair”

e.g. “A useful footballer he will be in an year or two.” [15, pag.7]

1.1.2 Position of the predicate

“The sentence is the communication where it is presented only one

predicate. From the normal point of view the sentences are simple and complex.
The subject is grammatically independent of any other part of the sentence. The
second principal part of the sentence – the predicate agrees with the subject in
person and number and this agreement between them helps the sentence to have a
finite meaning. [1, pag.89]

To speak to the point, there are cases when a P-S-O is also correct in
meaning. To distinguish between the two S-P-O sentence and P-S-O sentence we
will give examples from both of them.

a) in affirmative and negative sentences:

e.g. “She was writing a poem”

b) in interrogative sentences which begin with an interrogative word ( who, which,

what, how much etc.) in nominative:
 e.g. “Who thinks so?”,
e.g. “ What happened with her?”

c) in indirect interrogative sentences:

e.g. “ We don’t know who these men are”
e.g. “ Tell me what their name is and how old they are?”

a) in interogative sentences:
e.g. “Was she on the terrace?”
e.g. “ Did he hold a degree?”

b) in sentences containing an exclamation or a wish:

e.g.“Long may you live to enjoy it!” “How short seemed the hours!”

c) When the verb is preceded by the introductive particle “there”:

e.g. “ There is something in what you say.”
e.g. “There remains nothing to be done before the exam.”

d) When the subject is succeded by a long attribute sentence:

e.g. “Here go the English women who had decided to organize a
demonstration for the banning of nuclear weapons.”

e) In conditionals sentences where “if” is omitted:

e.g. “Were she here, she would solve the problem.”

f) In the sentences containing a negative imperative:

e.g. “ Don’t you dare say a word to him! ”
e.g. “ Don’t you believe such a thing! ”

g) with emphasis:
e.g.“ Lucky is the man who has such a life”
 h) in indirect speech , where the rithm of the sentence requires the
inversion of the subject with the verb:
e.g.““Yes”, he said.”
e.g.“For though I’ve never seen it, I know others who have”

i) in cumulative declarations:
e.g. “ The children are hungry, so am I” [2, pag.607].

1.1.3 Position of the object;

Concerning the object in the S-P-O sentence we can say that its importance
is relative.

e.g. “The object is a secondary part of the sentence which stands in close
relation to a verb, completing restricting or in any other way modifying its
meaning” [3, pag.270]

e.g. “The usual position of the object is after the predicate. However, in
exclamatory sentences the direct object may occupy the first place:

e.g. “What wonderfully eyes you have Ernest!” [3, pag.270]

e.g. “ This position of the object generally doesn’t cause inversion, except
in poetry, high prose and negative exclamatory sentences:

e.g. “Passage after passage did he explore, room after room did he peep
into”

In declarative sentences the front position of the object serves the purpose
of emphasis:

e.g. “ A fearful voyage I had with such a monter in the vessel” [21,pag.212]
 e.g. “A natural incident relieved her anxiety.” / “Dar o intimplare ii puse
capat nelinistii.”

1.1.3.1 Direct Object

A noun in a common case or a pronoun in the objective case that completes

the meaning of a transitive verb is called a Direct Object. The Direct object is the
direct receiver or product of the action denoted by the transitive verb[23.pag.210]

e.g. “The other returned a quick affirmative.”

“When the direct object is emphasized and placed at the head of the
sentence, the inverted order of subject and predicate may be found.”[23,pag.211]

“But there are cases with two direct objects. The following verbs take two
Direct Objects – to ask, to answer, to take, to envy, to hear, to forgive. In fact, the
place of the direct Object is behind the verb”[14, pag.240]

1.1.3.2 Cognate object

But there is another object that is called the Cognate Object, that is placed
between the transitive verb and the Direct Object:

e.g. “ to run a swift race”

e.g. “to dream an interesting dream”[3, pag.271]

The Cognate Object or Accusative consists in the fact that it has the same
root with the verb which is considered transitive:

e.g.“ They live a long and happy life.”[2, pag.611]

“The indirect Object usually denotes the person towards whom the action of
the finite verb is directed:
 e.g. “I shall buy a book for you”.

e.g. “He bought the boy a book”.[11, pag.330]

1.1.3.3 Indirect Object

The Indirect Object has a fixed place in the sentence – it precedes the
Direct one; it cannot be used without the Direct Object. The indirect object follows
the Direct Object if this one is a pronoun and the Indirect object another personal
pronoun.

When the Direct Object is a pronoun, it is placed before the indirect one:

e.g.“Give it to Jones!” [11, pag.328]

In the case when the indirect object implies the idea of a selection, the Direct
Object is placed before the indirect one:

e.g. “Pass the salt to Marry.”

1.1.3.4 Prepositional Object

The prepositional object is always placed behind the direct object and the
indirect object:

e.g. “I haven’t told him anything about it” [11, pag.329]

As a rule every English sentence contains words or groups of words

functioning as subject and predicate. The three parts of the sentence: and the
subject, and the predicate, and the object have a great responsibility of word order.
We can add that the whole notion is based on these three parts of the sentence.
 1.2 Position of the attributes;

Concerning the attributes we must be very attentive not to change somehow

their position, because they become meaningless. In this sub-point we will state the
importance of this secondary part of the sentence by questioning if it influences
somehow the meaning of the sentence or not. We will demonstrate that meaning
can change when we change the position of the attributes, and it remains when we
do not.

“ The attribute is the secondary part of the sentence determining a noun.

The usual place of the attribute expressed by an adjective, noun, pronoun or
participle is before the word it modifies.”[6, pag.237]

“Words in the function of attributes modify nouns giving them some kind
of characteristic.”[10, pag.116]

Just the same definition of attribute gives us other authors:

“The attribute is the secondary part of the sentence which denotes the
qualities of a person or thing expressed by a noun (or pronoun) in any of its
functions in the sentence.” [9, pag.373]

“Attributes determine the noun and their place is before the noun:

e.g. “She is singing a beautiful song”

e.g. “He is my good friend” [11, pag.331]

Depending on closeness of the syntactic ties between the attribute and its
noun, we distinguish: close attributes and loose attributes.

1.2.1 Close and loose attributes

 Close attributes form a tight sense unit with their nouns. but loose attributes
are less tightly connected with their nouns. Adding more information to, or
explaining what is being said in the sentence, they are regarded as a more
independent member of the sentence, and hence, often separated by a comma from
the rest of the sentence.

Close attributes:

e.g. “A large cat jumped the window seat.”

e.g. “They gave each child a big apple.”

e.g. “I’d like another cup of tea.”

e.g. “I borrowed two pounds from Jane’s brother.”

e.g. “She admired his way of doing things.”

Loose attributes:

e.g. “Happy and carefree the children run down the hill.”

e.g. “Painted green, the house was almost invisible on the forest covered
hill.”

e.g. “You behave like a school boy afraid of his teacher.”[10, pag.117]

Sometimes the attribute is placed behind its noun:

e.g. “They were the last to come.”

e.g. “You can ask the man in the street.”

e.g. “The book read by me is interesting.”[11, pag.332]

 1.2.2 Position of two or more attributes;

There are cases when the sentence contains two or more attributes, and then,
we may have doubts concerning their place in the sentence. To be sure where is
the place of every attribute, Leon Levitchi and Causanscaia will help us.

“Attributes denoting age, color, material and nationality come next to the
noun modified.”

e.g. Two years of married life had not lengthened her shost dark chestnut
hair.(Galsworthy)

When two or more attributes denoting age, color, material and nationality
refer to the same noun, the order is as follows:

various age color material nationality noun

new grey silk stockings

A funny old English squire

Five-year Rosy- child

old cheeked

[3, pag.272]

[18, pag.126]

e.g. “She was a regular church-goer, of simple faith, honest-hearted,

receptive, intelligent, graceful to a degree chaste as a vestal and in personal
appearance exceptionally beautiful.” / “Era cinstita, receptiva, inteligenta si destul
de gratioasa, pura ca o vestala, iar in ceea ce privste infatisarea, neasemuit de
frumoasa.” – Because of the fact that in this example we have only attributes from
the same class, they do not require any order a part. This is an abundance of
adjectives describing a young girl.
 e.g. “ The mixed, singular, luminous gloom in which they walked along
together to the spot where the cows lay often made him think of the Resurrection-
hour.” / “Privind ceata ciudata – amestec de lumina si de intuneric, prin care
treceau ca sa ajunga in locul unde erau vocile – Clare se gindea la invierea
Mintuitorului.” – mixed – general; singular – state, age; luminous – color; gloom –
noun. A perfect presentation of word order in English, what we cannot say about
the Romanian variant, that is translated in another way.

e.g. “She was a fine and handsome girl – not handsomer than some others,
possibly – but her mobile peony mouth and large innocent eyes added eloquence to
color and shape” / “Era frumoasa la chip si la trup. Poate ca nu mai era cea mai
frumoasa, dar miscarea buzelor rosii ce bujorul si nevinovatia ochilor ei mari
faceau ca forma si culoarea acestora sa devina mai expresive.”

As we can see, from these examples, in Romanian it is less strict to keep the
right position of the very word. We can arrange the sentence as we want, the
flexibility of our language permit us such things.

1.2.3 Attributes in post-position

There are cases when we can meet attributes in post- position. There are not
so many, but anyway we will mention them in order not to make mistakes.

“There are some cases when the post position of the attribute is its normal
place, when it is not emphatic: [3, pag.272]

1. Most adjectives in –able and –ible are placed after the noun, especially
when the noun is preceded by the adjective “only” or an adjective in a superlative
degree:

e.g. “sufferings unspeakable”

e.g. “the only person visible” [11, pag.332]

 Sometimes, we can find in literature examples like this one:

e.g. “After that, the blackness of unutterable night” – it follows the general
rule because here we don’t have any superlative.

e.g. “…such models unimpeachable as are turned out yearly by the lathe of a
systematic tuition.” – Here it is the superlative degree.

2. in some stock – phrases

e.g. “poet laureate”

e.g. “sum total”

e.g. “court material”

e.g. “four years running”

e.g. “the first person singular” [19, pag.126]

3. Attributes expressed by cardinal numbers denoting the place of object in a

series always follow the noun modified:

e.g. “chapter nine”

e.g. “room five”

e.g. “page ten” [19, pag.126]

4. The adjective “proper” and “present”, coming from French, are placed
after the noun:

e.g. “the subject proper”

e.g. “all the people present” [3, pag.273]

5. Adjectives stand after indefinite and negative pronouns.

 e.g. “I’d like to read something very interesting.”

e.g. “There is nothing extraordinary in her dress.” [3, pag.273]

e.g. “It was something very strange in his words” / “Se simtea ceva straniu
in cuvintele lui.” – We see that in Romanian the expression is translated otherwise,
but the logical way is kept.

6. Attributes expressed by prepositional phrases follow the noun modified

e.g. “As a gesture of proud defiance he had named his son Francis Nicolas.”
[3, pag.273]

When two or more attributive adjectives are placed in post-position, their

connection with the noun they modify is often loose; they become detached and
are consequently separated by a comma:

e.g. “When I looked up… there stood the window pale, grave and amazed.”

e.g. “The boy inherited his own eyes, large, brilliant and black”.[3, pag.271-
274]

1.3 Position of adverbial modifiers;

To draw a parallel with the adverbials, the attributes are to modify nouns,
while adverbials – verbs.
 There are very many kinds of adverbials and each of them “pretend” a firm
position in the sentence.

“An Adverbial modifier hardly ever separates the Direct object from the
predicate. It stands either before the predicate or after the Direct object.”[11,
pag.329]

1.3.1 Adverbial modifier of place;

Adverbs of Place
(e.g.: here, there, behind, above)

Like adverbs of manner, these adverbs are put behind the direct object or the verb.

subject verb(s) direct object adverb

I didn't see him here.

He stayed behind.

The adverbial modifier of place generally stands either at the beginning or at

the end of the sentence.

e.g. “English is spoken all over the world.”

e.g. “William the Conqueror landed at Pevensey, on the coast of

Sussex.”[24, pag.54]

However an adverbial modifier of place sometimes comes between the

predicate and the prepositional object:

e.g. “He emerged from the theatre with the first of the crowd.”[3, pag.274]

The adverbial modifier of place has an advanced of preceding those of time

and purpose:
 e.g. “I am going to the country tomorrow.”

e.g. “Well, they only kept up there about an hour, but that was sure a long
time”[25, pag.300]

e.g. “Not a human being was out-of-doors at the dairy.” / “Ograda laptariei
era pustie.” – the adverbial modifier of place stands either at the beginning or at the
end of the sentence. Here it is in the end, but it is not clear in the Romanian
variant; it might be translated in another way: “Nici o fiinta umana nu era la
laptarie” – here we can easily say that in Romanian even the order is kept.

e.g. “There was a great stir in the milk-hose just after breakfast.” / “Dupa
gustarea de dimineata accea toata lumea era in fierbere.” – the adverbial modifier
of place sometimes prcedes that of time, while in Romanian it is placed in front of
the sentence.

1.3.2 Adverbial modifier of time;

Adverbs of Time
(e.g.: recently, now, then, yesterday)

Adverbs of time are usually put at the end of the sentence.

subject verb(s) indirect object direct object time

I will tell you the story tomorrow.

If you don't want to put emphasis on the time, you can also put the adverb of time at the beginning of the sentence.

time subject verb(s) indirect object direct object

Tomorrow I will tell you the story.

The adverbial modifier of time is usually placed at the beginning or at the

end of the sentence;
 e.g. “We have lived in Craiova for 25 years.”[24, pag.52]

e.g. “Angel felt that he would like to spend a day with her before the
wedding, somewhere away from the dairy.” / “Inainte de nunta, Angel simti ca vrea
sa mai petreaca o zi cu Tess hoinarind ca indragostitii undava departe de laptarie.”
– both adverbial modifiers are placed after the predicate. The adverbial modifier of
time follows the predicate and the adverbial modifier of place follows that of time.
In Romanian we do not have the same picture, because the adverbial modifier of
time is placed in front of the sentence. In fact, the meaning remains the same.

e.g. “They said finally that it was better not to act in a hurry but that they
would not object to see her.” / “In cele din urma parintii spusera ca ar fi mai bine
sa nu ia o hotarire pripita, dar ca nu ar avea nimic impotriva sa vada fata.” – the
adverbial modifier of time is usually placed either at the beginning or in the end of
the sentence. In the English sentences the adverbial is placed in the end of it, while
being translated into Romanian it stands in front of the sentence.

Position of Time Expressions

(e.g.: recently, now, then, yesterday)

Adverbs of time are usually put at the end of the sentence.

subject verb(s) indirect object direct object time

I will tell you the story tomorrow.

If you don't want to put emphasis on the time, you can also put the adverb of time
at the beginning of the sentence.

time subject verb(s) indirect object direct object

Tomorrow I will tell you the story.

Note that some time expressions are adverbs of frequency (always, never, usually
usw.). These are usually put before the main verb (except for 'be' as a main verb).

subject auxiliary/be adverb main verb object, place or time

I often go swimming in the evenings.

He doesn't always play tennis.

We are usually here in summer.

I have never been abroad.

1.3.3 Adverbial modifier of Manner and of Cause;

The adverbial modifier of cause expresses the cause of the action done by
the subject and that is expressed by a predicate. Its place is usually at the end of the
sentence.

e.g. “I couldn’t come because of the rain”

e.g. “We arrived late on my account”[11, pag.333]

Adverb of Manner
(e.g.: slowly, carefully, and awfully)

These adverbs are put behind the direct object (or behind the verb if there's no
direct).

subject verb(s) direct object adverb

He drove the car carefully.

He drove carefully.

The most frequent position of the adverbial modifier of manner is after the
predicate, if the verb is intransitive and after the object if the verb is transitive:
 e.g. “The children were playing happily.”

e.g. “Alice sings beautifully” [5, pag.42]

e.g. “Then those eyes flashed brightly through their filmy heaviness.” /
“Ochii somnorosi ii lucira sub greutatea pleoapelor.” – The adverbial modifier of
manner is usually placed after the predicate but it is lost while translating in this
case: “flashed brightly = lucira.”

When we have an emphasis like this example, it stands in front of the

sentence: “With a feeling of faintness she withdrew the letter.” / “Tess lua
scrisoarea simtind ca-i fuge pamintul de sub picioare.”

1.3.4 Adverbial modifier of Purpose and of Concession;

The adverbial modifier of purpose represents the purpose of the subject

materialized. Always its place is in the end of the sentence.

e.g. “He only works for money.”

e.g. “This advice is used for various purposes.”[19, pag.245]

The adverbial modifier of concession is placed usually in the end of the

sentence:

e.g. “They have come in spite of my refusal not to come.”

e.g. “They played football in spite of the bad weather.”[13, pag.55]

1.3.5 Adverbial modifier of condition and of agency;

The adverbial modifier of condition represents the condition of the subject in

that sentence. It is usually placed in the end of the sentence:

e.g. “Whether permitting, we’ll arrive earlier.”

 e.g. “Come with your friend, if possible.”[6, pag.250]

The adverbial modifier of agency, the logic subject is used only in passive
voice; and its place depend on the context:

e.g. “The book was read by the student.”

e.g. “The house was destroyed by the earthquake.”[11, pag.335]

1.3.6 Adverbial modifier of Frequency and of degree;

Adverbs of Frequency
(e.g.: always, never, seldom, usually)

Adverbs of frequency are put directly before the main verb. If 'be' is the main verb and there is
no auxiliary verb, adverbs of frequency are put behind 'be'. Is there auxiliary verbs, however,
adverbs of frequency are put before 'be'.

subject auxiliary/be adverb main verb object, place or time

I often go swimming in the evenings.

He doesn't always play tennis.

We are usually here in summer.

I have never been abroad.

The adverbial modifier of frequency precedes the predicate verb in a simple

tense – form, but follows the verb “to be” and all the modal verbs. When it is
emphasized it stands before the verb “to be”:

e.g. “You are always good at this work”[3, pag.270]

Sometimes it occupies the first place but this position generally doesn’t
cause inversion:
 e.g. “Often, he had asked her to come and pass judgements on his
junks.”[17, pag.52]

e.g. “Whenever this happened the dairy was paralysed.” / “Ori de cite ori se
intimpla asa laptaria era ca paralizata.” – Both in English and Romanian the
adverbial modifier of frequency precedes the predicate-verb.

The adverbial modifier of degree expressed by the adverb “enough”

generally follows the adjectives it modifies, but may follow or precede a noun:

e.g. “He is clever enough, but very lazy.”

e.g. “I have time enough to do it.”

e.g. “I have enough time to do it.”[18, pag.124]

e.g. “…yet it was enough to build up wretched dolorous dreams upon there
in the shade of the night.”

The adverbial modifier of degree always precedes the predicate; if the verb
is in a compound tense-form they follow the first auxiliary:

e.g. “I entirely agree with you”

e.g. “It was quite enough for him”[6, pag.244]

e.g. “I fell strong enough to walk any distance” said she. / “Ma simt in stare
sa merg oricit, spuse ea.” – Ma simt destul de puternica…, it would be better,
because we can see the slight difference between the original, and the translated
variant.

1.3.7 Adverbial modifier of Measure and of Result;

The place of the adverbial modifier of measure is usually in the middle or at

the end of the sentence:
 e.g. “He stood still a long while, surveying the hillside.”

e.g. “He moved down the street a few steps.”

e.g. “Mauki no longer weights one hundred and ten pounds.”[9, pag.379]

The purpose of the adverbial modifiers in a sentence is to give complete

information about the subject and its actions. How we can see, in the very example
given to each kind of adverbials, they are placed at the end of the sentence that is
easy for us not to avoid mistakes.

In general, words in these functions like: attribute, adverbial modifiers…,

give some more information to nouns, verbs, specifying the circumstances of a
happening.

1.4 Inverted word order

How we already mentioned, we know that all the words in the sentence
perform definite syntactic functions. But not every time the order of words is
respected in a sentence. So, to help us to understand how the meaning of one
sentence can change is the notion of the Inverted order of words. Usually, the
subject can change its place with the predicate. In this sub-point we are interested
in the importance of the inverted order of words, and we are going to demonstrate
that the changing of words’ place in the sentence has a firm intention.

To be more concrete we will take examples which state especially this fact,
and we will analyze this problem from a prospective point of view.
 Peter Erdman in his work “Discourse and Grammar”, argues that the
inversion in fact, is the placing of the subject after the finite verb [Jacobsson 1951:
51]

Angela Cataraga, in her “English grammar in tables and Schemes” illustrates

very well the most cases of inversion. So, here are some examples:

• In interrogative sentences;
Where did they find her?

• Sentences introduced by there;

There is nothing marvelous in that.

• Compound sentences, their second part beginning with so or neither;

Their parents escaped unhurt, so did three of their sons.

• Simple exclamatory sentences expressing wish;

Be it so!

The inverted order of words is widely used when a word or a group of words
is put in a proeminent position. I this case inversion is due to the author’s wish to
produce a certain stylistic effect. Thus inversion occurs when:

• An adverbial modifier opens the sentence:

a) Ad. Ms. expressed by a phrase or phrases open the sentence,

and the subject often has a length modifier;
In an open barouche stood a stout old gentleman.

b) An Ad. M. with a negative meaning opens the sentence. Here

belong such adverbial modifiers as: in vain, never, little etc. In
this case the auxiliary “do” must be used if the predicate does
not contain either an auxiliary or a modal verb;
 Never before and never since, have I known such peace, such
happiness.

c) Ad. Md. expressed by such adverbs as: so, thus, now, then, etc.
placed at the head of the sentence, if the subject is expressed by
a noun;
Now was the moment to act.
NB. If the subject is a pronoun, inversion does not take place.
Thus he thought and sank down upon the wet earth.

d) Ad. Ms. of M may or may not cause inversion. In case of

inversion the auxiliary “do” must be used if the predicate does
not contain either an auxiliary or a modal verb.
Silently did the doctor bear all this.

• Only, hardly, scarcely (correlated with the conjunction when) no

sooner (correlated with the conjunction then), nor open the
sentence;
Scarcely was one long task completed when a guard unlocked our
door.

• The sentence begins with the word here which is not an adverbial
modifier of place but has some demonstrative force;
Here is my car, Sir.
N.B. If the subject is expressed by a personal pronoun, the word
order is direct.

• Postpositions denoting directions open the sentence and the subject

is expressed by a noun. Here belong such words as: in, out, down,
away, up, etc; Out went
 Mr. Smith’s head again.
N.B. If the subject is a pronoun, inversion doesn’t take place.

• An object or an adverbial modifier expressed by a word group with

not a…, or many a… opens the sentence. In case of inversion the
auxiliary “do” must be used if the predicate does not contain either
an auxiliary or a modal verb; Not a soul
did I met with all I drive.

• A predicate expressed by an adjective or by the pronoun such

opens the sentence (in case the subject is a noun or an indefinite
pronoun);
Sweet was that evening.
Such is life.

• The predicate, which introduces conditional clause, is expressed by

was, were, had, could, or should.
Even were they absolutely hers, it would be a passing means to
enrich herself. [Cataraga]

“According to the form of the finite verb two types of inversion are then
distinguished. The first of this known as “absolute inversion”, has a verb form in
the present or past, followed by the subject”

e.g. “He will never understand” gambled the President.””[7, pag.22]

The second part is known as “partial inversion” indicating that only part of
the predicator follows the subject (e.g. the “be” of the expanded from temporal
“have” ) [7, pag.23]

e.g. “When are you leaving?”

e.g. “Never before have his comments been nastier.”[17, pag.75]

 e.g. “Oh, yes; there is nothing like a fiddle.”/ “Asta asa-i” – When the verb is
preceded by the introductive particle “there” the order of the words changes and
we have already a P-S-O sentence.

e.g. “ – How can you think of reading it?

– How can I? Why – it is a system of philosophy. /

– Cum iti poate trece prin minte sa citesti asa ceva?

– Cum? Bine, dar e vorba de un sistem filosofic.”

The definition of inversion as the placing of the subject behind the finite
verb raises problems with all English verb forms which do not have a contrast
between the finite and non-finite.

“Exception to the S-P-O rule that means inversion is when the predicate is
placed in front of the subject.”[14. Pag.240]

e.g. “Seeing Tess standing at gaze he went across to her.” / “Vazind ca Tess
privea in jur cautind pe cineva, se apropie de ea.”

e.g. “Do you know that riddle about the nott cows, Jonathan?” / “Cunosti
zicala aia despre vacile ciute, Jonathan?” – in interrogative sentences.

There are very many cases of inversion and in different sentences the subject
goes behind the predicate due to some categories of sentences such as
exclamations without the objects when “here” and “there” introduce a sentence; in
the sentence expressing a wish. In fact, we have already done this classification
and mentioned that the inversion produced is the process of changing the place of
the subject with the predicate.
 “ The inverted order of words is widely used when a word of a group of
words is put in a proeminent position. Inversion occurs when an adverbial modifier
opens the sentence”[14, pag.241]

“Inversion occurs when post-position denoting direction opens the sentence

and the subject is expressed by a noun.” [3, pag.268]

This order of words makes the speech especially lively.

e.g. “Out went Mr. Pickwick’s head again.”(Dickens)

e.g. “There’s a letter for you, Miss Moss.”(Monsfield) [3, pag.269]

e.g. Then tere was the hissing of a train… / Se auzise apoi pufaitul unui tren
care se opri aproape fara zgomot.

In comparison with other authors, Causanskaia argues that “it must be born
in mind that emphatic order doesn’t necessarily mean inversion; emphasis may be
also achieved by the proeminent position of some part of the sentence without
inversion, i.e. without placing the predicate before the subject.”[3, pag.269]

There is the case to speak about the full inversion and partial one. Due to
many inflections in the language there are people that don’t distinguish between
them saying that inversion is in fact – inversion and it’s all. Looking inside of this
problem there are very close, but not the same:

e.g. “Up flew the sparks in myriads at the long were stirred.” – full
inversion;

e.g. “Where are you going.” – partial inversion; [9, pag.351]

e.g. “There are two main cases of inversion:

 a) Inversion may be required by the grammatical structure of a given type of
a sentence. Thus in interrogative sentences the finite verb must, as a rule, precede
the subject:

e.g. Will you leave your message with me?(Galsworhty)

e.g. Is Mr. Worthing in the library?(Wilde)”[9, pag.353]

e.g. Why do nott cows give less milk in a year than horned? / De ce ciutele
dau mai putin lapte intr-un an decit vacile cornute?

e.g. What is the good of your mother and me economizing… / Ce rost mai
are ca parintii tai sa stringa bani… - even the interrogative word in nominative
permits here the inversion.

e.g. Do you know why I did that, Tess? / Stii de ce am facut asta , Tess?

b) Inversion may be the result of emphasis. When some word in the sentence
is put in a proeminent position to make it emphatic, the structure of the sentence
may require an inverted order of subject and predicate verb.

e.g. “Up flew the bright sparks in myriads as logs were stirred.” (Dickens)

e.g. “Never shall I forget the lonely sensation of a first lying down, without a
roof above my head” (Dickens)[15. Pag.45]

e.g. But now glad am I to have you here! / Dar tare imi pare bine ca te am
aici linga mine!

“Since emphasis and stress normally fall at the beginning and end of the
English sentence, a skillful writer often inverts word order to place what he wishes
to have emphasized at the sentence’s beginning or ending.”
 e.g. “Divine I am inside and out.” – more grammatically than if he had
written “I am Divine inside and out.” [23, pag.207]

“Word order is one of the subtlest and most important problems of style.
There are no rules or reliable guidelines; the best way to learn how best to order a
sentence is to read widely among skilled writers and educate your ear to possible
rhythms” [18, pag.128]

Sometimes word order involves logic, as we can see in the examples with
misplaced modifiers. Otherwise, lack of wondering purpose may seem to be what
the essay suffers from. But usually the issue is more one of style than sense.

e.g. “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” [23, pag.208]

- The meaning is clear, but it is lost when we change the words, it has
another connotation: “Life, the pursuit of happiness and Liberty.” \ “Liberty, Life
and the pursuit of happiness.”

We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred
honor, again has the inevitability of the right word order.

Perhaps a slight shift in the normal word order creates dramatic tension.
Ordinarily, a modifier should be placed next to the word it modifies.” [23, pag.209]

The inverted order of words is o required in indirect speech:

e.g. What’s the matter? said he. / Ce-i, Tess, ce s-a intimplat? o intreba
Angel.

What a fresh and virginal daughter of Nature that milkmade is, said he. / Ce
proaspata si feciorelnica fiica a Naturii, isi spuse el.

e.g. “It is a lady again” – interrupted she holding out the bud she had peeled.
/ Ia uitate asta e altfel… il intrerupsese ea aratindu-i mugurele pe care il cojise.
 “ Inversion in English is triggered by a variety of linguistic factors. First, the
type of sentence determines whether there is post-position of the subject.
Obligatorily or optional, inversion occurs with polar and “Wh” – questions,
negated imperatives, exclamations, comparative sentences and other constructions.
These can be termed sentence – type inversion.

e.g. “Do you remember her name?”

e.g. “Isn’t the weather nice?” ” [7, pag.23]

There is also post-position of the subject in declarative sentences when

introduced by adverbial elements such as “nowhere” “seldom” qualifying elements
like “little” and “few” intensifying expressions like “so” or “such” or pro-forms
like “as” or “so”. This can be called “clause – element inversion.”

e.g. “Nowhere could he find a job.”

e.g. “Dana liked the movie, and so did Bob.” [5, pag.27]

“Inversion also occurs in declarative sentences when certain lexical

conditions of the verbal group are fulfilled. This type of inversion can be referred
to predicator inversion.

e.g. “On the floor squatted the man had been looking for.”

e.g. “Spearheading the campaign was Masspink, the party official.” ” [25,
pag.293]

e.g. “Some problems of word order are dealt with in the section of jargon,
circumlocution and dead wood.

The arrangement of words is an artistic rather than strictly grammatical

matter. Styles vary from stark sentences of early Hemingway to the full diapason
of Faulkner, whose open-stopped sentences sometimes go on for as long as six
pages, full of subordination upon subordination, participle upon participle and
parentheses within parentheses.

Most writers settle somewhere between these two extremes” [23, pag.207]

Inversion generally causes many problems both in speech and writing. The
most important place is attributed namely to the inverted order of words.

Researching different works of many authors we managed to draw a picture

concerning the inverted order of words. Now we don’t have the right to say that the
sentence in English is the most difficult to investigate. We tried to sum up much
information about it and now we have a strait idea of what the sentence consists in.

In learning and especially while translating into English we must take into
consideration the place of each part and in some cases such as: emphasis or
something else to serve us of inverted order of words.

Conclusion

Word order is a crucial syntactical problem in many languages. In English it

has peculiarities, which have been caused by the concrete and the specific way the
language has developed. Of course every language has its structure and the
functions of different parts of syntactical items vary. Because of the fact that the
English language is very rigid, each part of the sentence has its position in it. To
prove this fact, we examined a lot of examples that give us the whole information
about each item a part. For instance, we must remember that the S-P-O sentence
serves as a base of the word order in English. The position of a word in the
sentence may be changed within the recognized variants and the models are the
materialization of these variants. Concerning the inversion, is usually known as
being an emphatic construction.

Generally, we must take into consideration the fact that while translating or
even speaking English we must be very attentive at the word order because we can
make mistakes aimless.

Chapter Two: Contrastive study of word order in

Economic Documents.

Introduction
Many researchers of word order and word order variation have
approached the subject matter by taking what can be described as a speaker's
stance. Constraints on, or patterns and preferences in, word order are studied by
observing how varying aspects of a meaning that is to be expressed, like
grammatical function assignment or information structure, influences word order.
In computational linguistics, natural language generation involves taking this
perspective.
Conversely, one may also emphasize the effect word order variation has on
the interpretation of a sentence. For instance, one may study how word order
restricts the available readings of a sentence in terms of grammatical function
assignment, information structure, referentiality of arguments, or quantifier
scoping. The computational linguistics task of natural language parsing is a
concrete example of this approach, which we may call taking the hearer's
perspective.
More recently, researchers have proposed that a more complete
understanding of word order is gained by combining these perspectives. For
instance, it has been argued that canonical word order is preferred in contexts in
which grammatical function assignment cannot be reliably determined using word
order independent information, such as case, agreement, or animacy. In a model
that combines perspectives, this can be formalized as a restriction of the speaker's
freedom in choosing a word order variant that is determined by hearer's ability to
recover the correct grammatical function assignment.

The aim of this Diploma Thesis is to bring together researchers of word

order that assume different perspectives (focusing on the interpretation of form, the
expression of meaning, or on the interaction of the two) from a variety of
methodological backgrounds (computational, experimental or theoretic,
quantitative or discreet)

In this Chapter our purpose is to illustrate better the importance of a certain

word order in the English sentence. We will work with many Economic documents
such as “Decision concerning the strategy for support to SMES development for
2006 – 2008”, or “Prerequisites for achieving the priorities of the national
development strategy.” We will state the differences between some abbreviations
and economic terms.

This analysis will help us to demonstrate the rigidness of the English

language in organizing an economic sentence.

We will use original documents in English and original ones in Romanian,

but we will permit us to give some of our variants of translation in order to show
some hidden aspects of the meaning of the sentence. Of course we cannot deny
that sometimes in Romanian there are cases when changing the place of a word we
obtain another meaning, but it happens very rarely. We will take care about it.

2.1 Contrastive analysis of the main units of an

Economic sentence.
2.1.1 The S-P-O sentence in corresponding to S-P-O in
Romanian;
This chapter is wholly dedicated to the equivalents with different types of
sentences from many Economic Documents. We have selected and analysed about
150 examples of sentences from the syntactical point of view. I chose namely to
research Economic works because it seemed to me very interesting how the word
order changes in some situations: when we have to emphasise something, or the
author wants to hide something from the people’ eye. Economy is actual that is
why we decided to research this topic. We will take now some interesting examples
and we will try to discover how to use the right order not to make context mistakes
in the field of Economy.

“Communication in the process of NDS development was a key element for

ensuring the participation of stakeholders.”
“Comunicarea in cadrul procesului de elaborare a Strategiei a reprezentat
un pilon de baza pentru asigurarea participarii partilor interesate”
I this first example we can observe that the order of words in Romanian
keeps the word order from English. The translator tried to be closer to the original
variant in order to give a perfect translation. Due to this, he kept not only the order
but the main idea of the sentence too.
“The aim of the second stage was to collect the contributions to the draft
action plan, the analysis of these, ways of stakeholder participation in the
implementation of the strategy.”
“Scopul etapei a doua a constat in colectarea contributiilor la proiectul
Planului de actiuni pentru implimentarea Strategiei, analiza acestora, relevarea
modalitatilor de participare a gurpurilor de interese la implimentarea Strategiei.”
In this example we can follow a translation made with a very strict attention
to its order. This means that the translator followed very attentively the order
namely in this sentence, as it follows: Subject with its attributes, predicate, object,
and other modifiers.
“If the collapse of the economy was rapid, so has been the recovery.”
“Daca colapsul economiei a fost rapid, la fel a fost si recuperarea.”
Here it could be the effect produced by “If conditional”, but it doesn’t have
any value because the sentence doesn’t contain any condition. It is just a statement
and it drives us wrong, at the first sight.
 “The Moldovan growth is still recovery growth and the productivity gains
that are due to reallocation of productive resources from import substitution into
export production are closed to be depleted.”
“Cresterea inregistrata in Moldova este pina la ora actuala o cresetre de
recuperare, iar performantele in productivitate, care se datoreaza realocarii
resurselor productive de la sectoarele mai putin competitive la cele mai
competitive, sunt practice pe sfirsite.”
So, we can mention here that the subject didn’t suffer any change after being
translated, and so did the predicate, that means that the word order didn’t change.
“Abrupt economic decline combined with an inadequate policy response to
quickly address the new situation forced the Moldovan labour force to search
employment opportunities outside their home country.”
“Declinul economic abrupt in combinatie cu raspunsul de politici inadecvat,
care trebuia sa careneze situatia nou create, a pus forta de munca din Moldova in
pozitia de a cauta oportunitati de angajare inafara hotarelor tarii de bastina.”
“The debate on migration flows has traditionally separated two large
categories of explanation for migration: the push factor and the pull factor.”
“Dezbaterile pe marginea fluxurilor migrantilor au separat explicatiile
motivelor care cauzeaza migratia in doua categorii mari: factori de constringere
si factori de atragere.”
“There is a significant difference between the perceived poverty situations of
the migrants into different destinations.”
“Exista o diferenta semnificativa intre nivelul de saracie al migrantilor si
destinatiile alese de acestia.”
Due to the construction There is that introduces the sentence we have here
an inversion. In Romanian, “there is” is translated as “ exista”, and the order of
words is kept in both languages.
“Finally, even the nationality of the workers matter.”
“In final, chiar si nationalitatea muncitorilor are importanta.”
 Here is an example of a perfect model of word order. The translator tried to
be close to the original variant, that is why it is perfect.
“For a private household looking for investment opportunities, the variety
of options is rather limited.”
“Pentru o gospodarie privata care cauta unele oportunitati de a investi,
varietatea optiunilor este destul de limitata.”
Here are some other examples that belong to the category of Direct Word
order:
“The landscape of economic opportunities in Moldova is rather
monotonic.”
“Peisajul oportunitatilor economice din Moldova este destul de monoton.”
- “Moldova needs to encourage productive investments in order to reach
higher levels of sustainable growth that could contribute to poverty
reduction domestically.”
“Moldova trebuie sa incurajeze investitiile productive pentru a atinge
niveluri mai inalte de crestere continua, care ar putea contribui la reducerea
saraciei din tara.”
- “Corruption is not a problem for the legal system alone, but affects the
investment climate at large.”
“Coruptia constituie o problema nu doar pentru sistemul de drept, ci care
afecteaza si climatul investitional in general.”
- “Moldovan firms generally do not see infrastructure as a major
constraint for their business.”
“Intreprinderile moldovenesti nu percep infrastructura drept o constringere
majora pentru afacerile lor.”

2.1.2 Slight differences in translating a S-P-O sentence from English

into Romanian;
 “Based on the analysis of the current situation, policy reforms are
suggested that would gear the development towards more sustainable pro – poor
growth.”
“In baza analizei situatiei curente, este propusa reformarea ampla a
politicilor care ar directiona procesul de dezvoltare catre sustinerea cresterii
continue intru reducerea saraciei.”
Due to more freedom in Romanian in what consists arranging the sentence it
is proposed this way of translation. We see that in English, the S-P order is present,
while in Romanian it changes into P-S.
“Also, in Moldova the households are looking for the optimal solution for
improving their welfare.”
“De asemenea, gospodariile casnice in Moldova cauta solutia optimala
pentru a-si imbunatati nivelul de trai.”
As a rule, in English the Predicate goes just after the Subject and we do not
have the right to introduce between them any adverbial modifier as we can in
Romanian.
“The national Development Strategy for 2008 – 2011, which is included in
the annex that is a part of this low, is approved.”
“Se aproba strategia nationala de dezvoltare pe anii 2008 – 2011 cuprinsa
in anexa care face parte integrate din prezenta lege.”
Her we see the same situation that we have above: in English the order is
right, but in Romanian it is emphasized the action i.e. it is approved – se aproba,
and not “strategia se aproba”.
“Within a timeframe of 3 months since the effectiveness of this low, the
Government will develop and approve an Implementation plan and the monitoring
system for the National Development Strategy for 2008 – 2011.”
“Guvernul, in termen de 3 luni de la data intrarii in vigoare a prezentei legi,
va elabora si va aproba planul de implimentare si sistemul de monitorizare ale
strategiei nationale de dezvoltare pe anii 2008 – 2011.”
 We see that in the English variant the subject goes first as it might be, so it
is in Romanian, but here already it is interrupted by the additional information, the
adverbial phrase that completes the idea. In English this phrase is placed at the
head of the sentence.
“At the beginning of 2007, a more significant growth of FDI was observed,
which increased by USD 205 million, accounting for USD 1505.4 million on July,
1.”
“De la inceputul anului 2007, s-a observat o crestere mai semnificativa a
USD care a sporit cu 205 milioane de dolari SUA, constituind la 1 iulie 1505.4
milioane de dolari SUA.”
The predicate goes after the subject in English, but in this case we get an
inverted order of S-P.
“In this context, the mapping of pre-university education facilities was
completed and a school network optimization strategy will be developed on its
basis.”
“In acest context a fost finalizata cartografierea institutiilor de invatamint
preuniversitar si in baza acesteia va fi elaborate strategia de optimizare a retelelor
de scoli.”
We observe that in most of the variants proposed by Economic documents,
especially in the Romanian ones, the order P-S is considered to be more literary.
“At present the competitiveness of Moldova small business is still limited.”
“Totodata, in present ramine a fi joasa competitivitatea intreprinderilor
mici in Moldova.”
The same that we have already mentioned is that the predicate goes first in
Romanian, and in English it goes secondly.

2.2 Attributes in English and Romanian in Economic

sentence;
 We know that the usual way of the attribute is before the word it modifies, so
our purpose in this sub point is to give some examples from Economic documents
in order to show the difference of their places in Romanian and in English. First we
will take some examples with only one attribute, after this, with two or more
attributes.
2.2.1 Position of one attribute in an Economic sentence in English
and Romanian;
The position of the attribute in English is before the noun, while in
Romanian it is after the noun it modifies. We do not deny the fact that it may be
before as well, but there are few cases in Romanian of this type. We shall see just
now.
“The Parliament adopts the present ordinary low.”
“Parlamentul adopta prezenta lege ordinara.”
We see the right position in Romanian of the attribute is after the noun while
in English it is before the noun, what we have already mentioned above.
“The government of the Republic of Moldova and civil society established
the following objectives in the process of Strategy development.”
“Guvernul si societatea civila si-au propus urmatoarele obiective in
procesul de elaborare a strategiei”
Another typical example of a right order in both languages.
“Given the experience acquired in the development and the implementation
of EGPRSP and MEUAP…”
“Pornind de la experienta acumulata in procesul de elaborare si
implimentare a SCERS si PARMUE…”
Here we have the post-position of the attribute in English that is translated
into Romanian in the same way. Even if it would be: the acquired experience in the
…, it didn’t change anything in meaning. Here it is the translator’s choice.
“Organizing the launching event – NDS National Forum.”
“Organizarea evenimentului de lansare – Forumul National.”
 Another typical example of a right order in English and Romanian. Here are
some more examples of this type:
“Organizing 15 public discussions at the national level…”
“Desfasurarea a 15 discutii publice publice la nivel national…”
“Macroeconomic stability.”
“Stabilitatea macroeconomica.”
“The domestic supply.”
“oferta interna.”
“compex measures”
“masurile complexe”
All these examples demonstrate us the real picture of the word order in
Romanian and in English. We mentioned that the position of the attribute in
Romanian is after the noun, while in English, on the contrary, it is before the noun,
what is characteristic only for each language a part. The translator of the Economic
documents tried to be very close to the original, that is why he used only identical
expressions.

2.2.2 Cases with two or more attributes in the English sentence

comparing with the Romanian one;
There are cases when the sentence contains two or more attributes, and then,
we may have doubts concerning their place in the sentence. But the rule that the
scientists proposed us in the theoretical part of our research will help us to see if
the order of two or more attributes in English corresponds to the order in
Romanian. So, let us take some examples.
“An essential prerequisite to sustainable and balanced economic growth is
the assurance of a macroeconomic stability by means of steady and foreseeable
monetary and fiscal policy.”
 “Asigurarea stabilitatii macroeconomice, prin politici monetare, fiscale si
comerciale stabile si previzibile, reprezinta o preconditie esentiala pentru
cresterea economica durabila si echilibrata.”
The word order is kept in both languages because the words respect the rule
proposed by the linguists: so, sustainable and balanced belong to category of
various and economic – to nature or material. In Romanian it doesn’t matter how
the attributes are arranged, it is the choice of the author, what he want to
emphasize.
“Promote a flexible exchange rate policy.”
“Promovarea politicii flexibile a cursului de schimb al monedei nationale.”
Here not all the attributes refer to the noun policy that is why all of them are
placed before the noun as they follow the words they modify.
“Improve public financial management.”
“Perfectionarea managementului finantelor publice.”
In this case public refers to financial and then financial to management, that
is why in Romanian it is translated as managementul finantelor publice. We cannot
change public and financial because it is a nonsense.
“The NBM will implement a prudent monetary policy…”
“BNM va realiza o politica monetara prudenta…”
In this case we can see a right order of the two attributes because prudent
belongs to various, and monetary to material.
“The implementation of a new monetary policy regime is planed ”
“Se preconizeaza implimantarea unui nou regim de politica monetara”
“The national Bank of Moldova will continue to maintain a floating regime
of the exchange rate and will promote a prudent foreign exchange policy
consistent…”
“BNM va mentine in continuare regimul cursului de schimb flotant si va
promova o politica valutara prudenta”
 In this example we can mention that the attributes go one after another being
interrelated between them, so prudent and foreign modify exchange, and exchange
modifies policy. What we have in Romanian? Here we see another panorama:
flotant modifies schimb, schimb modifies cursului, and finally cursului refers to
regimul.
“Moldova is a young independent nation with an institutional framework
still developing.”
“Moldova este o natiune tinara independenta, cu un cadru institutional inca
in dezvoltare.”

“…of a comprehensive medium-term public service reform…”

“…si marimii grilelor de venituri impozabile anuale ale persoanelor
fizice…”
Here is the same situation that we have already analyzed.
“…of administrative costs and their channeling towards better-quality civil
services…”
“… si directionarea acestora pentru prestare unor servicii publice de o
calitate superioara”
“…27 districts of the country participated in the regional public
discussions.”
“In cadrul discutiilor publice la nivel regional au participat 27 de raioane
ale republicii.”
In this example, we can affirm in a loud voice that the rule of the before
placed attribute is respected very well. We cannot change public with regional,
because regional is of a generality, while public it is already a characteristic to
those discussions.
“…of implementing the following primary conditions and priorities.”
“…pentru implimentarea Strategiei in vederea realizarii urmatoarelor
conditii primordiale si prioritati.”
 Following belongs to the general category within the context, while primary
– is the nature of the conditions, that is why we cannot change their positions; in
fact this position is kept in the translated variant as well.

2.3 Position of different adverbial modifiers in the sentence

in English and Romanian;
“The economic growth was accompanied by a significant improvement in
the fiscal situation.”
“Cresterea economica a fost insotita de o imbunatatire semnificativa a
situatiei fiscale.”
 The adverbial modifier of agency is placed after predicate in order to show
the doer of the action, or who carries the action… In Romanian we can observe
that it is the same.
“At the beginning of the 2007, a more significant growth of FDI was
observed.”
“De la inceputul anului 2007 s-a observat o crestere mai semnificativa a
ISD.”
The adverbial modifier of time is placed either at the beginning or in the end
of the sentence. In this example, it is at the head of the sentence, so it is in
Romanian.
“Development continued to be low-profile in rural areas due to a modest
progress accomplished in agriculture.”
“Dezvoltarea in spatial rural a continuat sa fie restrinsa, in acest lucru
explicindu-se prin evolutia modesta a sectorului agricol.”
The adverbial modifier of place is usually placed either before the verb-
predicate, or after it. In this example we observe that the adverbial is after the
predicate, while in Romanian it is translated and put before the predicate. Here it is
emphasized that the development, namely in spatiul rural and not elsewhere,
continued to be low-profile.
“During the economic recovery period, a high proportion of enterprises
operated in red.”
“In perioada de recuperare economica, ponderea intrerinderilor care au
inregistrat pierderi a ramas a fi inalta.”
Here the adverbial modifier of time figurate at the head of the sentence, that
permitted to the translator not to make many troubles with it and to place it just the
same at the beginning of the sentence.
“The growth of spending in this sector hasn’t been always accompanied by a
similar improvement in the quality of rendered services.”
 “Sporirea cheltuelilor in aceste sectoare nu a fost intotdeauna insotita de o
imbunatatire similara a calitatii serviciilor.”
The adverbial modifier of frequency stands in English between the auxiliary
verb and the predicate verb at complex tenses. So, it is in Romanian.
“The quality of education is negatively affected by the method of funding in
the education system…”
“Calitatea educatiei este afectata de modul de finantare a sistemului
educational…”
In this example we have two adverbial modifiers. The first one – the
adverbial modifier of manner: negatively, stands before the predicate being
emphasized, and the second – the adverbial modifier of agency: by the method,
stands after it. In the translated variant the author lost the word negatively, because
the verb “a afecta” has already a negative connotation.
“ The health sector has been subjected to important changes over the last
years.”
“In ultimii ani, sectorul sanatatii a fost supus unor transformari
importante.”
Here we see that the adverbial modifier in English is placed in the end of the
sentence, while in Romanian – at the beginning of the sentence being separated by
a comma.
“…and the social protection expenditures don’t always generate the
expected impact.”
“…cheltuielile publice pentru protectia sociala nu intotdeauna au efectul
scondat.”
The adverbial modifier of frequency is placed before the predicate verb, and
so it is in Romanian variant.
“Poverty is a very complex phenomenon, determined by the evolution of
several factors.”
 “Saracia este un fenomen foarte complex, influientat de evolutia mai multor
factori.”
The adverbial modifier of agency stands after the predicate –verb in passive.
“Poverty in 2006 will be analyzed independently of its evolution in previous
years.”
“Saracia in anul va fi analizata separat de evolutia acetsteia in anii
precedenti.”
The place of the adverbial modifier of manner is after the predicate.
“In 2005, the inequality level slightly increased in the Republic of
Moldova.”
“In anul 2005, la nivelul inegalitatii in Republica Moldova a inregistrat o
usoara crestere.”
The adverbial modifier of time don’t make many problems, and it is very
easy to put it in the end or at the beginning of the sentence. Here it is at the
beginning in both variants.
“The poverty profile in Moldova is characterized by major differences
between urban and rural areas.”
“Profilul saraciei in Republica Moldova se caracterizeaza prin diferente
mari intre zonele urbane si rurale.”
The adverbial modifier of agency, the logic subject is used only in passive
voice; and its place depend on the context, here it is in the end.
The adverbial modifier of agency, the logic subject is used only in passive
voice; and its place depend on the context, and here it is in the end.
“ However, povery remained at the level of 2004 in small towns.”
“In orasele mici insa, saracia s-a mentinut la nivelul anului 2004.”
The adverbial modifier of place is placed in the end of the sentence both in
English and Romanian.
“…and is considerably higher compared to previous years.”
“…care este cu mult mai mare decit in anii precedenti.”
 The adverbial modifier of degree is placed before the predicate in order to
calculate how much higher may it be compared.
“Previously, poverty measurement and analysis were both carried out by the
Ministry of Economy and Trade.”
“Anterior, masurarea si analiza saraciei erau realizate de de catre
Ministerul Economiei si Comertului.”
The adverbial modifier of agency is placed in the end of the sentence, and
the adverbial modifier of time – at the beginning.
“If possible, include the annual consumption flow derived from the use of
durable items.”
“Daca e posibil, se include fluxul de consum annual ce deriva din utilizarea
bunurilor de folosinta durabila.”
The adverbial modifier of condition represents the condition of the subject in
that sentence. It is usually placed in the end of the sentence or at the beginning.
“ In Chisinau, households paid only half of the central heating bill.”
“In municipiul Chisinau, gospodariile au platit doar jumatate din factura
pentru incalzirea centrala.”
“…that don’t exactly correspond to.”
“…care nu corespund intocmai.”
The adverbial modifier of manner in English is paced before the predicate
verb, while in Romanian it is vice versa.
“Because resources allocated for maintenance and repairs of rural
infrastructure were limited , it has significantly deteriorated.”
“In cazul infrastructurii rurale, insuficienta resurselor, destinate intretinerii
si reparatiei, au condus la deteriorarea semnificativa a acesteia.”
The adverbial modifier of cause is placed usually at the end of the sentence.
Here we have an emphasis that is why it is placed at the beginning of the sentence.
 “It is necessary to work out an action plan that would set distinct
implementation stages for the administrative decentralization process in the
Republic of Moldova.”
“Se va elabora un plan de actiuni care va stabili etapele distincte de
implimentare a procesului de descentralizare admininstrativa in Republica
Moldova.”
The adverbial modifier of place is placed in the end of the sentence both in
English in Romanian.
“Despite their high education in Moldova, they are usually unable to find
employment that would match their qualification…”
“Desi sinsele au diplome de studii superioare obtinute in Moldova, ele nu-si
pot gasi un loc de munca peste hotare care ar corespunde calificarii lor…”
The adverbial modifier of frequency is placed before the predicate verb.
What happens in the Romanian variant? Here the word usually disappeared and
give to the context another meaning.
“Hence, an optimal strategy at the micro level turns paradoxically out to be
a costly barrier for sustainable growth at the macro level.”
“De aceea, o strategie optimala la nivel microeconomic se transforma, in
mod paradoxal, intr-o bariera mult prea scumpa in calea cresterii continue din
perspectiva macroeconomica.”
The adverbial modifier of manner is placed after the predicate. In the
Romanian variant the modifier is isolated by commas, that means like being an
additional information to the main idea.
“These changes have sometimes been badly sequenced and they remain
insufficient…”
“Aceste schimbari au fost uneori prost planifacate si astfel insuficiente…”
Here, on the contrary, the adverbial modifier of manner is placed before the
predicate verb. It is emphasized the negative effect of those changes.
 “Emigration is always a second best opinion weighted against staying at
home…”
“Emigrarea este intotdeauna a doua cea mai buna optiune care vine dupa
optiunea de a ramine acasa…”
The adverbial modifier of frequency is placed after the predicate because it
is not emphasized anything, it is just a statement.

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