An Introduction to the Grammar of English: Syntactic Arguments and Socio-historical Backgrounds

225 Pages·2002·0.86 MB·English

by  Elly Van Gelderen

An Introduction
to the Grammar
of English:
Syntactic arguments
and socio-historical
background
Elly van Gelderen
John Benjamins Publishing Company
AnIntroductiontotheGrammarofEnglish

An Introduction
to the Grammar of English
Syntactic arguments and
socio-historical background
Elly van Gelderen
ArizonaStateUniversity
JohnBenjaminsPublishingCompany
Amsterdam(cid:1)/(cid:1)Philadelphia
TM ThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofAmerican
8
NationalStandardforInformationSciences–PermanenceofPaperforPrinted
LibraryMaterials,ansiz39.48-1984.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Gelderen,Ellyvan.
AnintroductiontothegrammarofEnglish:syntacticargumentsandsocio-historical
background/EllyvanGelderen.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Englishlanguage--Grammar.2.Englishlanguage--Grammar,Historical.3.English
language--Socialaspects.4.Englishlanguage--Syntax.I.Title.
PE1106.G382002
428.2-dc21 2002021580
isbn9027225885(Eur.)/isbn1588112004(US)(Hb;alk.paper)
isbn9027225869(Eur.)/isbn1588111571(US)(Pb;alk.paper)
©2002–JohnBenjaminsB.V.
Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyform,byprint,photoprint,microfilm,orany
othermeans,withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher.
JohnBenjaminsPublishingCo.·P.O.Box36224·1020meAmsterdam·TheNetherlands
JohnBenjaminsNorthAmerica·P.O.Box27519·Philadelphiapa19118-0519·usa
Table of contents
Preface ix
Listoftables xiii
Glossary xv
1 Introduction 1
1. Examplesoflinguisticknowledge1
2. Howdoweknowsomuch?5
3. Examplesofsocialornon-linguisticknowledge6
4. Conclusion7
2 Categories 11
1. Lexicalcategories11
2. Grammaticalcategories17
3. Pronouns20
4. Whatnewwordsandloanwordstellus21
5. Conclusion22
3 Phrases 31
1. Thephrase31
2. Phrasesinthesentence40
3. Coordinationofphrases41
4. Findingphrases43
5. Buildingtrees44
6. Conclusion46
ReviewChapters1–3 57
vi Tableofcontents
4 Functionsinthesentence 61
1. Thedifferentfunctionsandhowtheyarerealized61
2. Verbsandfunctions66
3. Trees67
4. Lightverbs(Optional)69
5. Conclusion69
5 Morefunctions,ofprepositionsandparticles 79
1. Adverbials79
2. Prepositionalverbs83
3. Phrasalverbs84
4. Phrasalprepositionalverbs(Optional)85
5. Objectsandadverbials86
6. Conclusion88
6 ThestructureoftheVerbGroupintheVP 97
1. Auxiliaryverbs97
2. Theorderofauxiliariesandaffixhop103
3. Finiteness105
4. Conclusion107
ReviewChapters4–6 113
7 Finiteclauses:Embeddedandcoordinated 119
1. Sentencesandclauses119
2. Thefunctionsofclauses120
3. Thestructure:S¢(pronounced:S-bar)120
4. Coordinatesentences124
5. Terminologicallabyrinth125
6. Conclusion125
8 Non-finiteclauses 135
1. Non-finiteclauses135
2. Thefunctionsofnon-finites136
3. Thestructure:S¢?137
4. Coordinatingnon-finites139
5. Conclusion140
Tableofcontents vii
ReviewofChapters7and8 147
9 ThestructureoftheNP,AdjP,AdvP,andPP 149
1. ThestructureandfunctionofAdjP,AdvP,andPP149
2. ThestructureoftheNPandfunctionsinsideit151
3. Argumentsfordistinguishingcomplementsfrom
modifiers 154
4. Conclusion156
10 ClausesaspartsofNPsandAdjPs 167
1. NPsandAdjPsascomparedtoPPsandAdvPs167
2. NPs:Modifier(Relative)andcomplementclauses168
3. MoreonRCs172
4. AdjPs:Complementclauses173
5. Conclusion174
11 Specialsentences 181
1. Questions/interrogatives181
2. Exclamations183
3. Topicalization,passive,cleft,andpseudo-cleft183
4. Conclusion184
ReviewChapters9–11 189
Furtherreading 195
References 199

Preface
Tothestudent
You don’t have to read long novels in this course — no Middlemarch or War
andPeace.Thereisn’tmuchmemorizationeither.Itshouldbeenoughifyou
becomefamiliarwiththekeywordsattheendofeachchapter(usetheglossary,
but don’t overemphasize the importance of terminology). The focus is on
arguments,exercises,andtreedrawing.Youneedtodothisfromthefirstweek
on, however, and you may also have to read a chapter more than once. The
courseisnotparticularlydifficultbutonceyougetlost,goforhelp!Thebook
is divided in four parts, with review sections after each. Chapter1 is the
introduction;skipthe‘justification’ifyouwant.
Justificationandthanks
ThisgrammarisinthetraditionoftheQuirkfamilyofgrammars,suchasthe
work of Huddleston, Burton-Roberts, Aarts & Wekker. Quirk, Greenbaum,
Leech,andSvartvik’sworkinturnisbasedonalongtraditionofgrammarians
suchasJespersen,Kruisinga,Poutsma,andZandvoort.
While following the traditional distinction between function (subject,
object, etc.) and realization (NP, VP, etc), the present book focusses on the
structure and makes the function derivative, as in more generativist work,
makingitunlikerecentgrammarssuchasVerspoor&Sauter(2000).Itsfocus
onstructurecanbeseeninthetreatmentoftheVPasconsistingoftheverband
itscomplements.Abstractdiscussionssuchaswhataconstituentisarelargely
avoided (in fact, the term constituent is since it is a stumbling block in my
experience),andthestructureoftheNPandAPisbroughtinlinewiththatof
theVP:NPsandAPshavecomplementsaswellasmodifiers.