Inversion (grammar)

choi

John Koblin, Hulu Makes Play to Contend with Netflix and Amazon. New York Times, Feb 26, 2018, at page B1 (B is business section).
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/ ... azon-and-apple.html

Quote:

(a) "Lawrence Wright was reluctant to adapt [for a screenplay] 'The Looming Tower,' his Pulitzer Prize-winning history of Al Qaeda and the run-up to 9/11. [But he changed he mind years alter:] Mr Wright developed the idea with the screenwriter Dan Futterman * * * and the filmmaker Alex Gibney * * * The three then pitched their projects to studios]

(b) In 2017 "Hulu won eight Emmy Awards for 'The Handmaid's Tale' [which shows Hulu is no longer a backwater]

(c) Craig Erwich, the head of content at Hulu, read 'The Looming Tower' soon after it was published in 2006. He even asked for a meeting with Mr Wright in 2007, when he was an executive at Fox. Eight years later, he was a contender [for Wright's project].

" 'I got a phone call from the reps [short for 'representatives'],' Mr. Erwich said, 'and they were like, "Are you aware of this book The Looming Tower?" And I was like, "Am I!" ' "

My comment:
(a) make a play for
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/make%20a%20play
(i) The NYT title "make play" without "a": The article "a" is omitted because a title has limited space. If it, the sentence, were in the text, the "a" would be necessary.
(ii) The title says Hulu makes a play for a certain book to compete with two rivals.

(b) Hulu outbid and got the right. That is not important to me. Instead I call your attention to "Am I" -- an emphatic form of "I am" (aware of the book).
(i) In grammar, this is called "inversion."
(ii) Another example of inversion is: Am I glad to see you. (an emphatic form of I am glad to see you.)
(iii) List of 18 Types of Subject/Verb Inversion. TestMagic..com, undated
http://www.testmagic.com/Knowled ... ammar/inversion.htm

Read category 12 in the table.