Description
First published in 1980, this book provides a clear and practical introduction to a wide variety of English structures. It concentrates on a large and crucial area of English grammar, which covers units of higher rank than words, and structures that have verbs rather than nouns as their nuclear elements.
Throughout the book, David Young focuses on the English language as it is actually spoken. At every point his discussion of syntax is closely integrated with meaning, and he pays particular attention to the ways in which speakers of English signal their intensions. The author points out how verbal patterning is meaningful, and outlines the criteria used by grammarians to distinguish one structure from another. The result is an analytical framework that can be applied to any real-life text in order to understand its structure.
This is a book that will encourage a realistic, exploratory and investigative attitude towards the English language.
Table of Contents
Preface; List of Symbols 1. Levels of linguistic structure 2. Grammar and grammatical rules 3. Clauses: meanings and structures 4. Structural recursion 5. Mood 6. Mood tags 7. Imperatives 8. Modality 9. Adjuncts and prepositional groups 10. Complementation 11. Phase 12. Theme 13. Voice 14. The verbal group 1 15. The verbal group 2 16. Tense and aspect 17. Clause complexes 1 18. Clause complexes 2 19. Bound clauses 1 20. Bound clauses 2 21. Reporting clauses 22. Reported mood and reported speech 23. Rankshift; Appendix A: English intonation; Appendix B: Passages of spoken text; Notes and suggestions for further reading; References; Key to exercises; Index
