A critical account of English syntax : grammar, meaning, text / Keith Brown and Jim Miller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, E. K., author.

Contributor:

Miller, J. E. (James Edward), 1942-

Series:

Edinburgh textbooks on the English language. Advanced

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Syntax.

English language.

English language--Grammar.

Physical Description:

ix, 296 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2016]

Summary:

Books in this series provide readers with a detailed description and explanation of key areas of English Language study. The authors presuppose a basic working knowledge of the topic and explore aspects of the linguistics of English for an intermediate or advanced student readership. A descriptive and comprehensive account of English syntax and grammar Tackling the role of syntactic constructions in text, this companion brings out the connections between syntactic structures and semantics/pragmatics and the function of different clausal structures in written and spoken texts. It also draws attention to the variation in standard written English, the grammatical structures and discourse devices in spoken English, and the ongoing changes in English grammar. It focuses on the concepts of descriptive grammar as extended and refined over the last fifty years. Key Features Encyclopaedic format gives immediate access to the most relevant topics, Cross-referencing allows students to follow a thread and explore the interrelationships among syntactic structures, Innovative content structure enables lecturers to decide the order in which topics are discussed and reading is prescribed, This is a practical yet flexible reference that you can return to again and again, whether it be for learning, research or teaching. Book jacket.

Contents:

Grammatically 9

Grammatically and acceptability 9

Grammaticality and intuition 10

Grammaticality and power 13

Grammaticality: descriptive and prescriptive grammar 15

Grammaticality and language change 16

Adjectives and adjective phrases 19

Adjectives and adjective phrases: introduction 19

Adjectives and adjective phrases: adjectives and denotation 21

Adjectives and adjective phrases: adjectives and gradability 22

Adjectives and adjective phrases: adjectives as heads of noun phrases 23

Adjectives and adjective phrases: adjectives as a word class 26

Adjectives and adjective phrases: adjective positions in noun phrases 28

Adjectives and adjective phrases: reduplication 30

Adverbs and adverb phrases 32

Adverbs and adverb phrases: introduction 32

Adverbs and adverb phrases: adverbs and adjectives 34

Adverbs and adverb phrases: structure of adverb phrases 36

Adverbial clauses 38

Adverbial clauses: introduction 38

Adverbial clauses: time, condition, reason, concession 39

Adverbial clauses: less common types 40

Adverbial clauses: position in clauses and sentences 40

Adverbial clauses: spoken English 44

Adverbial clauses: subordinate clause or main clause? 45

Clause and text 48

Clause and text: introduction 48

Clause and test: clefts 50

TT clefts 50

WH clefts 52

Reverse WH clefts 53

TH clefts 54

Clause and text: cohesion 55

Cohesion: orientation 55

Cohesion: orientation in place 55

Cohesion: orientation in time 55

Cohesion: orientation in time: tense and aspect 55

Cohesion: co-reference and referent tracking 56

Cohesion: coordination and subordination 57

Cohesion: adverbials and conjunctions 57

Clause and text: cohesion - active, passive, middle 58

Clause and text: discourse markers 61

Clause and text: ellipsis 62

Clause and text: focus 63

Clause and text: focus: special syntactic constructions 64

Clause and text: focus: word order 67

Clause and text: given and new 67

Clause and text: non-finite clauses 71

Clause and text: spoken and written text 72

Clause and text: theme 75

Clause structure 81

Clause structure: introduction 81

Clause structure: constituents 81

Transposition 81

Substitution 82

Coordination 82

Clause structure: dependency relations 85

Clause structure: hierarchical structure 92

Clause structure: linearity and predicate-argument structure 95

Clause structure: linearity and grammatical functions 97

Clause structure: verb phrases 101

Clause structure: integrated and unintegrared syntax 103

Clefts 107

Clauses: clefts 107

Complement clauses 112

Complement clauses: complementisers 112

Complement clauses: embedded interrogatives 114

Complement clauses: mood and modality 119

Complement clauses: gerunds, infinitives and meaning 121

Complement clauses: noun complement clauses 122

Constructions 125

Constructions: overview 125

Non-finite clauses 128

Non-finite clauses: introduction 128

Non-finite clauses: infinitives 130

Non-finite clauses: free participles 131

Non-finite clauses: gerunds (Type 1) 133

Non- finite clauses: gerunds (Type 2) 134

Non-finite clauses: reduced adverbials 136

Non-finite clauses: reduced relatives 137

Non-finite clauses: verb stem 137

Non-finite clauses: with + NP 138

Non-finite clauses: eight types or four? 139

Nouns and noun phrases 141

Nouns and noun phrases: introduction 141

Nouns and noun phrases: common and proper 151

Nouns and noun phrases: count and mass 153

Count ability: individuals and substances 153

Partitives 155

Number and agreement 155

Nouns and noun phrases: determinatives 158

Nouns and noun phrases: pronouns 164

Prepositions and prepositional phrases 170

Prepositions and prepositional phrases: introduction 170

Prepositions and prepositional phrases: prepositions and panicles 171

Prepositions and prepositional phrases: prepositions, transitive and intransitive 173

Prepositions and prepositional phrases: prepositional phrases, their distribution 174

Complements of verbs 175

Complements (or postmodifiers) of nouns 175

Complements (or postmodifiers) of adjectives 175

Complements of prepositions 175

Prepositions and prepositional phrases: prepositions and meaning 176

Prepositions and prepositional phrases: prepositional verbs 178

Relative clauses 180

Relative clauses: introduction 180

Relative clauses: contact 182

Relative clauses: free 183

Relative clauses: infinitival 185

Relative clauses: non-standard 186

Relative clauses: prepositional 187

Relative clauses: restrictive and non-restrictive 188

Relative clauses: shadow pronouns 190

Relative clauses: th 193

Relative clauses: unattached 195

Relative clauses: unintegrated 197

Relative clauses: wh 198

Relative clauses: wh words as deictics 201

Relative clauses: which as discourse connective 202

Sentences and clauses 206

Sentences and clauses: introduction 206

Sentences and clauses: clauses 208

Sentences and clauses: complex sentences 210

Sentences and clauses: compound sentences 211

Sentences and clauses: main and subordinate clauses 212

Sentences and clauses: sentence fragments 216

Sentences and clauses: simple sentences 218

Sentences and clauses: subordinate clauses: preposition or complementiser? 218

Sentences and clauses: system sentence and text sentence 220

Verbs and verb phrases 224

Verbs and verb phrases: tense and aspect: introduction 224

Verbs and verb phrases: tense and aspect in English 227

Verbs and verb phrases: future tense 229

Verbs and verb phrases: middle construction 232

Verbs and verb phrases: mood and modality 236

Verbs and verb phrases: passive voice 243

Verbs and verb phrases: present perfect and adverbs 245

Verbs and verb phrases: present perfect and resultative 249

Verbs and verb phrases: present perfect and simple past 252

Verbs and verb phrases: progressive aspect 254

Verbs and verb phrases: simple present 257

Verbs and verb phrases: situation (lexical) aspect 261

Word classes 268

Word classes: introduction 268

Word classes: major and minor 268

Word classes: gradience 270

Word classes: criteria 273

Word classes: semantics 275

Word classes: syntactic criteria and sub-classes 279.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0748696105

9780748696109

9780748696086

0748696083

OCLC:

950635521