An introduction to English syntax

206 Pages·2001·0.715 MB·English

by  Jim Miller

An Introduction to
English Syntax
Jim Miller
Edinburgh University Press
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Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language
General Editor
Heinz Giegerich, Professor ofEnglish Linguistics (University ofEdinburgh)
Editorial Board
Laurie Bauer (University ofWellington)
Derek Britton (University ofEdinburgh)
Olga Fischer (University ofAmsterdam)
Norman Macleod (University ofEdinburgh)
Donka Minkova (UCLA)
Katie Wales (University ofLeeds)
Anthony Warner (University ofYork)
    
An Introduction to English Syntax
Jim Miller
An Introduction to English Phonology
April McMahon
An Introduction to English Morphology
Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy
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An Introduction to
English Syntax
Jim Miller
Edinburgh University Press
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© Jim Miller, 2002
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
Typeset in Janson
by Norman Tilley Graphics and
printed and bound in Great Britain
by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin
A CIP Record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7486 1254 8 (hardback)
ISBN 0 7486 1253 X (paperback)
The right ofJim Miller
to be identified as author ofthis work
has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
To colleagues x
To readers xii
1 Heads and modifiers 1
1.1 Heads and modifiers 1
1.2 Heads, modifiers and meaning 3
1.3 Complements and adjuncts 4
1.4 Clauses 5
1.5 Dictionary entries and collocations 7
1.6 Verbs, complements and the order ofphrases 8
Summary 9
Exercises 9
2 Constituent structure 11
2.1 Heads, modifiers and arrangements ofwords 11
2.2 Tests for phrases 13
2.3 Phrases: words and slots 17
2.4 Coordination 18
2.5 Concluding comments 19
Summary 21
Exercises 21
3 Constructions 23
3.1 Introduction 23
3.2 Different constructions and different meanings 23
3.3 Types ofconstruction 27
3.4 Relationships between constructions 29
3.5 Copula constructions 30
Summary 32
Exercises 32
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vi AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SYNTAX
4 Word classes 34
4.1 What are word classes? 34
4.2 Criteria for word classes 36
Summary 45
Exercises 45
5 The lexicon 47
5.1 Syntax and lexical items 47
5.2 Individual verbs, complements and adjuncts 49
5.3 Classes ofverbs and subcategorisation restrictions 51
5.4 Selectional restrictions 52
5.5 Classes ofnouns 53
5.6 Subcategorisation, selection and constructions 55
5.7 Fixed phrases 56
Summary 57
Exercises 57
6 Clauses I 60
6.1 Clauses and sentences 60
6.2 Main and subordinate clauses 62
6.3 Subordinate clauses 63
6.4 Complementisers and subordinating conjunctions 66
6.5 Recognising clauses 67
6.6 Final comment 69
Summary 69
Exercises 70
7 Clauses II 72
7.1 Main and subordinate clauses 72
7.2 Clause and sentence 73
7.3 More properties ofsubordinate clauses 77
7.4 Finite and non-finite clauses 81
Summary 85
Exercises 85
8 Grammatical functions 88
8.1 Introduction 88
8.2 Subject 88
8.3 Direct object 93
8.4 Oblique object and indirect object 95
Summary 98
Exercises 99
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CONTENTS vii
9 Syntactic linkage 101
9.1 Introduction 101
9.2 Agreement 101
9.3 Government 103
9.4 Number and person linkage 106
9.5 Syntactic linkage in English 107
9.6 Number in English 109
9.7 Gender in English 109
Summary 110
Exercises 111
10 Heads and modifiers revisited 113
10.1 For and against verb phrases 113
10.2 Verb, core, nucleus and periphery 115
10.3 What is the head ofa noun phrase? 116
11 Roles 119
11.1 Roles, grammar and meaning 119
11.2 Criteria for roles 120
11.3 Roles and role-players 125
11.4 Problems with Patients: planting roses 128
Summary 131
Exercises 131
12 Grammar and semantics: case, gender, mood 133
12.1 Introduction 133
12.2 Case 133
12.3 Gender 135
12.4 Mood 136
Summary 141
Exercises 142
13 Grammar and semantics: aspect, tense, voice 143
13.1 Aspect 143
13.2 Tense in English 148
13.3 The English Perfect 149
13.4 Voice 151
13.5 Conclusion 156
Summary 157
Exercises 157
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viii AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SYNTAX
Appendix 1 160
Appendix 2 162
Appendix 3 167
Discussion of the exercises 169
Further reading 185
Index 188
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Acknowledgements
Anthony Warner read the first draft ofthis book and offered many valu-
able comments which have helped me to improve both the organisation
of the contents and the explanation of particular points. Jenny Fuchs,
although busy with her studies on the second year of the Honours
MA in English Language at the University of Edinburgh, gave both a
student’s reaction and comments worthy ofprofessional linguists.
Derek Britton spent a considerable time devising Old English
examples. Karin Søde-Woodhead drew my attention to a number of
inadequacies. Will Lamb reassured me that the text was at the right level
and on the right lines for an introduction to syntax. Over the past ten
years, a number of classes have acted as guinea pigs for Chapters 6 and
7 on clauses and for Chapters 12 and 13 on grammar and semantics.
I thank all the above and declare that I alone am responsible for any
imperfections in the book.
ix
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To colleagues
This book is an introduction to syntax for students embarking on
English Language courses. It might also prove useful to students taking
the English Language A-level or its equivalent and to students taking
university courses in Linguistics. The book does not even sketch
the major syntactic constructions of English. Most of the examples are
indeed from English, but the book deals with the general concepts
necessary for analysing syntax (whether of English or of some other
language).
Many students in the UK and elsewhere take courses in English
Language and in Linguistics in their first and/or second years but then
specialise in another subject. The content of this book reflects the view
that such students should be taught concepts and methods that find an
application in other university disciplines or outside university. This
criterion excludes detailed discussion of constituent structure, tree
diagrams and formal models ofsyntax, because these find no application
outside the classroom except in computational linguistics. But even
in that field, the central topics include basic clause analysis, discourse
organisation, tense, aspect and modality. The concepts of head and
modifier, and of subcategorisation and valency, find some application,
say in the teaching of foreign languages. Also useful and applicable is
knowledge of different types of clause and their function in sentences,
word classes, case, transitivity and gender.
The topics mentioned in the preceding paragraph are traditional but
have been greatly developed over the past thirty years; new perspectives,
new data and new insights are available. More importantly, they all find
applications in teaching, in speech pathology, in university courses on
discourse analysis and stylistics, in courses on psycholinguistics and in
cognitive science, and in the preparation of commercial and technical
documents and in writing in general.
The above explains why the book has only one short chapter on
constituent structure. (But Appendix 1 gives diagrams showing depen-
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