A straightforward guide to understanding English grammar
This book is for people who have never thought about syntax, and who don't know anything about grammar, but who want to learn. Assuming a blank slate on the part of the reader, the book treats English grammar as a product of the speaker's mind, and builds up student skills by exploring phrases and sentences with more and more complexity, as the chapters proceed.
This practical guide excites and empowers readers by guiding them step by step through each chapter with intermittent exercises. In order to capitalize on the reader's confidence as a personal authority on English,Understanding Sentence Structure assumes an inclusive definition of English, taking dialect variation and structures common amongst millions of English speakers to be a fact of natural language.
Situates grammar as part of what the student already unconsciously knowsPresupposes no prior instruction, not even in prescriptive grammarBegins analyzing sentences immediately, with the "big picture" (sentences have structure, structure can be ambiguous) and moves through levels of complexity, tapping into students' tacit knowledge of sentence structureIncludes exercise boxes for in-chapter practicing of skills, side notes that offer further tips/encouragement on topics being discussed, and new terms defined immediately and helpfully in term boxesApplies decades of findings in syntactic theory and cognitive science, with an eye towards making English grammar accessible to school teachers and beginning students alike
Understanding Sentence Structure: An Introduction to English Syntax is an ideal book for undergraduates studying modern English grammar and for instructors teaching introductory courses in English grammar, syntax, and sentence structure.
Preface xii
Acknowledgments xvii
1 Lets get Parsing! 1
1.1 some introductory words 1
1.2 lets start understanding what those unconscious rules that create structure are 11
1.3 some conclusions, and what to look forward to in the coming chapters 16
list of terms/concepts 17
reference 17
2 The Subject NP Outside and In 18
2.1 some introductory words about thenoun phrase vs. thesubject position 18
2.2 the subject position 20
2.3 lets get inside that NP triangle 23
2.4 possessive NPs 42
2.5 conclusions 47
list of terms/concepts 50
3 The Subjects Better Half: The Verb Phrase 51
3.1 parts of theverb phrase we already know about 51
3.2 building up the VP 53
3.3 revisiting structural ambiguity from Chapter 1 56
3.4 VPs with double objects 58
3.5 VPs with adjectives 61
3.6 constituency test 64
3.7 conclusions 70
list of terms/concepts 71
4 Up Close and Personal with the Prepositional Phrase 73
4.1 aspects of theprepositional phrase we already know about 73
4.2 its not just the P and NP anymore! 76
4.3 verbparticle constructions 83
4.4 modifiers within PP 89
4.5 lexical vs. functional prepositions 93
4.6 English prepositions are not inflected 95
4.7 conclusions 96
list of terms/concepts 97
5 Infinite Wisdom: Sentences Inside the Verb Phrase 98
5.1 aspects of theverb phrase we already know about 98
5.2 building up VP 99
5.3 the complementizer phrase 108
5.4 embedded adjunct clauses 119
5.5 conclusions 123
list of terms/concepts 124
6 Its More Complex Than That: The Complex Noun Phrase 126
6.1 aspects of thenoun phrase we already know about 126
6.2 subordinate clauses within the noun phrase 127
6.3 the noun complement clause 131
6.4 the relative clause 139
6.5 subject relative clauses 152
6.6 conclusions 157
list of terms/concepts 158
7 Making Their Presence Felt: Silent Categories 159
7.1 what is asilent category in sentence structure? 159
7.2 the reality of thetrace of movement:wannacontraction 163
7.3 other kinds of silence: thenull pronoun 166
7.4 thenull operator in relative clauses 182
7.5 conclusions 184
list of terms/concepts 185
8 The Main Attraction: Main Verbs and the Simple Tenses 186
8.1 overview: the main verb and its entourage 186
8.2 main verbs: the present, the past, and the future 191
8.3 conclusions 214
list of terms/concepts 216
reference 217
9 The Support System: Auxiliaries and the Compound Tenses 218
9.1 auxiliary verbs: the support in the English verb system 218
9.2 auxiliaryhave 221
9.3 auxiliarybe 242
9.4 modal auxiliaries 254
9.5 verb selection and word order 260
9.6 conclusions: all 16 possible combinations 264
list of terms/concepts 266
10 It Takes a Village: Main Verbs, Auxiliaries, Tense, and Negation 267
10.1 the syntax of the English verb system 267
10.2 auxiliaries and the syntactic expression of tense 268
10.3 main verbs: in a class by themselves 298
10.4 conclusions 312
list of terms/concepts 313
references 313
11 Unfinished Business 314
11.1 overview 314
11.2 tense as the head of S 315
11.3 matrix interrogatives 318
11.4 xbar and binary branching 330
11.5 adverbs 335
11.6 conclusions 340
list of terms/concepts 342
references 343
Index 344
