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Marked Word Order in Diplomatic Correspondence
Dear Minister Alvarez,
Rarely have our two institutions had an opportunity as promising as the cultural exchange proposed for next spring.
The sentence survived three rounds of editing because it did more than sound formal. It placed the adverb "rarely" in initial position and triggered subject–auxiliary inversion — "have our two institutions had" rather than the neutral "our two institutions have had." The marked order signalled emphasis immediately, before the letter had even named the programme itself.
In diplomatic correspondence, that kind of inversion can be useful. It can also be disastrous.
The first draft of the letter had contained five marked structures in its opening paragraph:
"Never before have our institutions cooperated at this scale.
Rarely has such an opportunity arisen.
Only now can the programme move forward.
Under no circumstances should the timetable be delayed.