Friday, April 11, 2014

Inversion after "only a few years ago"

Can anyone please tell me why we don't use inversion after "only a few years ago"?



Today I was doing one of the CPE exercises from Side and Wellman and I encountered the following sentence :




"Only a few years ago the herring gull more often than not remained close to the sea and nested on cliffs."




My question is, why don't we use inversion here after "only a few years" as I have always been taught that, after "only + when or the specific time" we use inversion.





"Only when Mohegan scouts led them through the woods did the settlers stand much of a chance."




Is that not true ?
I have already checked plenty of sentences in COCA none of which used inversion. Why ?

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