Description

For undergraduate and graduate level courses in English grammar, syntax, and writing; also appropriate for a course in teaching English at the secondary level.

Approaching grammar as a process and not a product, this text engages students in a conversation about English that will help them reflect on how their language works and understand the social judgments that accompany language use–making them feel they are active participants in shaping their language rather than passive victims of grammar rules that someone imposes on them. Employing the terminology of traditional grammar combined with the insights gained by modern linguistic analysis, it describes English as an instrument of communication, and lays the necessary groundwork for thinking about language so that students can extend what they learn to new situations and apply their knowledge of language in ways most useful to them. Three different types of exercises support the learning and review processes and motivate students to think, talk, and write about English with increasing confidence and sophistication as the term progresses.

Features

Basics of English are explored—Beginning with a discussion of the development of a standard English language and the origins of our present day rules of English and attitudes towards usage; lays the foundation for the study of grammar, emphasizing the complex interaction between language rules and behavior; talks about how one approaches the study of the structure of a language; and finally, works from the lowest levels of grammatical organization to the highest—starting with an analysis of words and working up to the level of the sentence.

• Gives students the critical insight they need to understand the concept of language as human behavior, and shows them that language is an organic system in which the parts are interrelated and function together to perform the highly complex task of communicating human thought.

Discussion exercises —Reinforces a newly introduced principle; designed for group work and distributed throughout the chapter.

• Lets students check their understanding in a non-threatening forum.

'Reflections”—Offers real-life, open-ended questions and project suggestions which draw connections between the chapter material and everyday usage, historical fact, literature, language change, and the media.

• Gets students to think about language use in real-world settings, stimulates class discussion, and engages students in timely, enjoyable discourses about their language.

Practice exercises—Integrate all information contained in the chapter and includes excerpts from literature to analyze, as well as examples of nonstandard usage to identify; answers provided for every other question.

• Enables students to check their understanding on their own and to identify problems that need special attention in class.

New to this Edition

1. It includes a discussion of grammar on the Internet, an exciting new development, historically speaking, that allows for wideranging and

rich public discussion of grammar issues in ways not imagined in other centuries.

2. New examples from literary and other sources have been added

3. Exercises and explanations have been refined and in some instances are now more compatible with the needs of online students, who do

not have the benefit of regular facetoface interaction with instructors and other students.

4. The chapter on negation now preceds the clause level chapters to better serve as a helpful review of previously covered lexical categories.

of the chapter on negation, which now precedes the clause level chapters. In this position it serves as a helpful review of previously

covered lexical categories.

5. In recognition of the fact that many students using this book will be called on to teach grammar themselves, the authors has included some parting

comments addressed specifically to future teachers

Table of Contents

PREFACE xiii

 

Chapter 1 WHY STUDY ENGLISH GRAMMAR? 1

Native Speakers and Grammar Study 1

Standard English 2

Judgments About English 4

The Legacy of the Eighteenth Century 7

Reflections 8

 

Chapter 2

HOW DO WE STUDY

ENGLISH GRAMMAR? 10

Why Do People Disagree About Grammar? 10

Who Is the Authority? 10

What Role Do Traditional Dictionaries Play? 10

Online Grammar Sources 12

Why Is There No One Standard? 13

Why Do Languages Change? 14

What Are the Common Elements of English? 16

Constituent Structure 16

Rules and Regularities 19

Reflections 20

 

Chapter 3 NOUNS AND NOUN PHRASES 21

What Are Nouns? 21

What Are Some Common

Subcategories of Nouns? 23

What Makes Up a Noun Phrase? 26

Determiners 27

Predeterminers and Postdeterminers 29

What Are the Functions of Noun Phrases? 30

Subject 30

Direct Object 32

Indirect Object 33

Object of a Preposition 35

Complement 35

Verbal Nouns and Noun Phrases 36

Compounds 38

Reflections 40

Practice Exercises 42

 

Chapter 4 VERBS AND VERB PHRASES 46

What Are Verbs? 46

What About the Exceptions? 50

What Are Some Common

Subcategories of Verbs? 53

What Is Verb Tense? 57

What Makes Up a Verb Phrase? 63

What Are Nonfinite Verb Phrases? 66

Compounds 66

What Is SubjectVerb Agreement? 67

Reflections 72

Practice Exercises 76

 

Chapter 5 PRONOUNS 80

What Are Pronouns? 80

Personal Pronouns 81

Reflexive Pronouns 88

Reciprocal Pronouns 91

Demonstrative Pronouns 91

Relative Pronouns 92

Interrogative Pronouns 94

Universal and Indefinite Pronouns 95

Reflections 97

Practice Exercises 99

 

Chapter 6 ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS 1

03What Are Adjectives? 103

How Do Adjectives Modify Nouns? 106

What Are Adjective Phrases? 108

What Are Adverbs? 109

Is All Well and Good? 112

What Are Adverb Phrases? 115

Reflections 116

Practice Exercises 117

 

Chapter 7 PREPOSITIONS AND PARTICLES 120

What Are Prepositions? 120

What Are Prepositional Phrases? 121

What Are Particles? 125

Reflections 127

Practice Exercises 128

 

Chapter 8 NEGATION 131

What Is Negation in Grammar? 131

Verb Negation 131

Negation of Indefinites 133

Noun Negation 135

Adjective and Adverb Negation 136

Negation of Compounds 137

Reflections 139

Practice Exercises 140

 

Chapter 9 VOICE 144

What Is Grammatical Voice? 144

How Is the Passive Voice Formed? 146

How Are Grammatical Relations

Determined in the Passive Voice? 147

Why Do We Need the Passive Voice? 149

What Is a Truncated Passive? 150

Reflections 152

Practice Exercises 153

 

Chapter 10 DISCOURSE FUNCTION 156

What Is Discourse Function? 156

Declaratives 157

Interrogatives 158

YesNo Questions 158

Wh Questions 160

Tag Questions 164

Minor Question Types 167

Imperatives 169

Exclamatives 170

Crossover Functions of Clause Types 171

Reflections 174

Practice Exercises 175

 

Chapter 11 COMBINING CLAUSES INTO

SENTENCES: COORDINATION 179

How Is a Sentence Different from a Clause? 179

Sentence Building Through Coordination 179

Clause Coordination and Ellipsis 183

Reflections 185

Practic