"Away has flown a bird" ?

[DJ]

Hi,
What is the inversion of the following sentence?

"A bird has flown away."

Is it "Away has a bird flown" or "Away has flown a bird"?


-------------
I came across the above question from an English learning discussion
board. One responder provided a passage from Swan's "Practical English
Usage":
[quote]
303 inversion (s): whole verb before subject
1. after adverbial expressions of place
...., intransitive verbs are often put before their subjects. ...

Ex: Under a tree _was lying_ one of the biggest men I had ever seen.
....
[end quote]

So it seems "Away has flown a bird" is correct.

And yet another person responded that (, I'm paraphrasing here,) "Away
has a bird flown" is the only correct answer, and in the example from
Swan's book, the placement of "lying" before its subject is because the
subject(+relative clause) _is very long_, hence the fronting of "lying"
before the subject to avoid confusion.

This reasoning got me curious, so I did some digging:

books.google.com:
Samples corresponding to "Away _has flown_ a bird":
(I focus on samples with *short subjects*)
1. "Away have flown our hours." ("The Dream in the Orchard", 2007)
2. "And now, though with his golden wings,
Away has flown my little Love,
Within my home there sits a dove,
...." ("Arthur's Illustrated Home Magazine", 1885)(Too old?)

So I did manage to find two valid samples, but I don't think I can make
a solid conclusion based on these two.

I also tried to find some samples corresponding to "Away _has_ a bird
_flown_":
"away has * flown" : 0 (valid samples)
"away have * flown" : 0

"Here has a * come" : 0
"Here had a * come" : 0
"From here have * come" : 0
"From here has * come" : (pretty much)0

(I also tried "Here has/have/had * come" and "From here had * come".
They yielded a great number of hits, and I went through first several
pages and couldn't find valid samples)

If I'm not careful, I would almost say "Away has a bird flown" is wrong,
but of course I need help from AUEers.

--
-DJ

[Harrison Hill]

On Jan 29, 7:22 pm, DJ <nos...@no.no> wrote:
> Hi,
>     What is the inversion of the following sentence?
>
>       "A bird has flown away."
>
>     Is it "Away has a bird flown" or "Away has flown a bird"?

I haven't read all your blurb. "A bird has flown away" is natural
English. "Away has flown a bird" is good poetical English (but not
something anyone would ever say outside of a poem). "Away has a bird
flown" you could *just* about get away with in a very radical poem,
but don't try it in your English lesson :)

[R H Draney]

Harrison Hill filted:
>
>On Jan 29, 7:22=A0pm, DJ <nos...@no.no> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> =A0 =A0 What is the inversion of the following sentence?
>>
>> =A0 =A0 =A0 "A bird has flown away."
>>
>> =A0 =A0 Is it "Away has a bird flown" or "Away has flown a bird"?

>
>I haven't read all your blurb. "A bird has flown away" is natural
>English. "Away has flown a bird" is good poetical English (but not
>something anyone would ever say outside of a poem). "Away has a bird
>flown" you could *just* about get away with in a very radical poem,
>but don't try it in your English lesson :)

"Flown away, a bird has"
-- Jedi Master Yoda

....r


--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.

[DJ]

On 01/29/2013 02:25 PM, Harrison Hill wrote:
> On Jan 29, 7:22 pm, DJ <nos...@no.no> wrote:

....
....

> "Away has flown a bird" is good poetical English (but not
> something anyone would ever say outside of a poem). "Away has a bird

Thanks! A short and wonderful answer it is.
I think as much, about my not seeing it much outside of a poem.
(And my not reading poems hasn't helped either.)

> flown" you could *just* about get away with in a very radical poem,
> but don't try it in your English lesson :)
>

I'll keep it in mind. But of course, I would normally just say/write "A
bird has flown away."

---

> I haven't read all your blurb. "A bird has flown away" is natural
> English.

And here I spent a great deal of time writing up "what I thought about
my question" per feedbacks by some AUEers in the past. But no worry, I
do come here and aim for short and quick answers(, not that longer ones
aren't appreciated).

--
DJ

[Peter Moylan]

I'd go as far as saying that it's very unusual to invert a sentence in
the present perfect tense. It's something that you could completely
ignore as a learner; it can only make you produce sentences that will
confuse people.

If the verb is in the simple past tense, it's more common. "Away flew a
bird" sounds like a normal sentence. Even there, though, it's literary
style rather than something that you would hear in a conversation.

--
Peter Moylan, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. http://www.pmoylan.org
For an e-mail address, see my web page.

[Jerry Friedman]

On Jan 29, 3:02 pm, Peter Moylan <pe...@pmoylan.org.invalid> wrote:
> On 30/01/13 06:25, Harrison Hill wrote:> On Jan 29, 7:22 pm, DJ <nos...@no.no> wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>     What is the inversion of the following sentence?
>
> >>       "A bird has flown away."
>
> >>     Is it "Away has a bird flown" or "Away has flown a bird"?
>
> > I haven't read all your blurb. "A bird has flown away" is natural
> > English. "Away has flown a bird" is good poetical English (but not
> > something anyone would ever say outside of a poem). "Away has a bird
> > flown" you could *just* about get away with in a very radical poem,
> > but don't try it in your English lesson :)
>
> I'd go as far as saying that it's very unusual to invert a sentence in
> the present perfect tense.

...

Maybe just unusual with "never" and "nowhere"? Never in my life have
I seen...

--
Jerry Friedman

[Guy Barry]

"Jerry Friedman" wrote in message
news:50947733-5501-46f9...@h2g2000yqa.googlegroups.com...

And in those cases you *have* to restrict the inversion to the auxiliary -
"never in my life have seen I..." is unacceptable.

--
Guy Barry

[Ian Jackson]

In message <5108...@dnews.tpgi.com.au>, Peter Moylan
<pe...@pmoylan.org.invalid> writes

The inversion is sometimes used in normal English, in sentences like "I
was cutting my hedge when, suddenly, out flew a bird" (although "I was
cutting my hedge when, suddenly, a bird flew out" is equally normal).
--
Ian

[Andrew B]

It was popular in Time magazine in the 30s; in Wolcott Gibbs's parody in
the New Yorker in 1936: "Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind",
and "Where it all will end, knows God!"

(More of the parody is given at
http://shreevatsa.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/timespeak-backward-ran-sentences-until-reeled-the-mind/).

[DJ]

On 1/29/2013 5:02 PM, Peter Moylan wrote:
> On 30/01/13 06:25, Harrison Hill wrote:
>> On Jan 29, 7:22 pm, DJ <nos...@no.no> wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> What is the inversion of the following sentence?
>>>
>>> "A bird has flown away."
>>>
>>> Is it "Away has a bird flown" or "Away has flown a bird"?
>>
>> I haven't read all your blurb. "A bird has flown away" is natural
>> English. "Away has flown a bird" is good poetical English (but not
>> something anyone would ever say outside of a poem). "Away has a bird
>> flown" you could *just* about get away with in a very radical poem,
>> but don't try it in your English lesson :)
>>
> I'd go as far as saying that it's very unusual to invert a sentence in
> the present perfect tense.

Thanks. So it further clarifies my suspicions, about the inversion
involving the present perfect tense (in sentences, or this specific
structure, like "Away have flown our hours." --The Dream in the Orchard,
2007)

Never in my almost 20 years of life in the US have I encountered
anything like "Away has flown a bird." It's my shortcomings, of course,
but still, the question (I came across) piqued my curiosity.

-----
On ... R H Draney wrote:
On ... Jerry Friedman wrote:
On ... Guy Barry wrote:
On ... Ian Jackson wrote:
On ... Andrew B wrote:

And thank you all.

--
DJ