Information structure

So you were listening to music yesterday Antonio... I thought perhaps you were still celebrating Italy's win!!

You mention the song 'Harrowdown Hill' by Thom Yorke (the lead singer of the band Radiohead) in your post. Is it clear where the title comes from? What does the lyric about 'the ministry' mean?

Do you look for new albums in music shops or do you read reviews online and download your new music? Do you have a favourite music website?

You talk about Radiohead's tour this summer and say that their, 'songs are presenting to the public...' The word order in this part of the sentence needs to be changed to, 'their songs are being presented to the public.' This is a passive structure; the direct object (songs) becomes the subject of the passive verb (are being presented: are being + part participle/third form). You could use the active voice here, 'Radiohead are presenting their songs to the public': subject + verb + direct object + preposition + indirect object. However, you have organised the information in this way (making 'songs' the subject of the sentence) to avoid repeating the name of the band, Radiohead, and to emphasise that THE PUBLIC are able to hear Radiohead's new songs, even though the lead singer has also made a solo album.

The way we organise information in a sentence, or part of a sentence, depends on what we have said/written before, or on what the listener/reader already knows, or on what we want to emphasise. This is a complicated area of grammar, but usually, in English, we like to put important NEW information at the end of a sentence or clause.

How does Italian organise information? Do you usually put new information at the ends of sentences?

I went to see Macbeth performed by the students of our local primary school yesterday. My son was a good '2nd Nobleman'; looked great in his costume and remembered his lines. It was really interesting to hear Shakespeare's Elizabethan English spoken in Yorkshire accents. It sounded really good. Because most of the children spoke quite quickly and didn't speak more loudly than usual, the effect was of very natural-sounding conversation. Very different from adults who might change their accents, speed and volume when reading Shakespeare. The result was very engaging and fresh.

Good luck finding your accommodation in London. Perhaps there is a reader of this blog who has a spare room for a week?!

Rachel

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