Clause Structure


Book Description

Clause structure is the most widely-studied phenomenon within syntactic theory. This accessible book synthesizes the most important research findings, examines a range of examples taken from data acquisition, typology and language change, and includes discussion questions, helpful suggestions for further reading and a useful glossary.




The Structure of English Clauses


Book 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.




English Syntax, second edition


Book Description

An authoritative, self-contained introduction to the subject for students who have had no prior coursework in syntactic theory. English Syntax is an authoritative, self-contained introduction to the subject for students who have had no prior coursework in syntactic theory. The detailed revisions throughout this new edition are aimed at increasing its clarity and usefulness. There are changes in almost every chapter, including a large number of new exercises and several new subsections. In addition there are two new appendixes, the first sketching the relation of English syntax to the wider field of generative syntactic theory, the second summarizing the basic syntactic structures discussed in the body of the text. Specific changes include a fuller discussion, at the beginning of chapter 3, of the difference between complements and modifiers; a more systematic introduction to tree diagrams and what they express, at the end of chapter 3; a new subsection in chapter 4 on how to analyze complex structures; a new discussion of the general nature of missing-phrase constructions in chapter 9; a significant revision of the discussion of comparative clauses in chapter 12; a new discussion of the scope of negation in chapter 15; and, in chapter 16, a new discussion of practical strategies for analyzing conjoined structures.




The Clause in English


Book Description

The focus in this volume is on grammatical aspects of the clause in English, presenting a fine balance between theoretically- and descriptively-oriented approaches. Some authors investigate the status and properties of 'minor' or 'fringe' constructions, including 'deictic-presentationals'; non-restrictive relative clauses with that; 'isolated if-clauses', and 'exceptional clauses'. In some articles the validity of conventional accounts and approaches is questioned: such as traditional constituency trees and labelled bracketings as a means of representing relationships between parenthetical elements and their 'hosts'; or traditional morphophonemic analyses as explanations for Ross's 'doubl-ing' constraint. While some authors question commonly made assumptions (for example those concerning the relationships of clauses to sentences and propositions; or those concerning the status of post-head dependents in the NP), others appeal to new frameworks (for instance 'emergence theory' is used as a source of inspiration in dealing with 'intransitive prepositions'). This collection also includes articles that adopt a solidly corpus-based approach. The Clause in English has been prepared by colleagues past and present, friends and admirers of Rodney Huddleston, in order to honour his consistently outstanding contribution to grammatical theory and description.




Small Clauses in English


Book Description

The future of English linguistics as envisaged by the editors of Topics in English Linguistics lies in empirical studies which integrate work in English linguistics into general and theoretical linguistics on the one hand, and comparative linguistics on the other. The TiEL series features volumes that present interesting new data and analyses, and above all fresh approaches that contribute to the overall aim of the series, which is to further outstanding research in English linguistics.




Different Types of Small Clauses and Their Analysis


Book Description

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1, University of Marburg (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: Proseminar Syntax, language: English, abstract: In this term paper, I will deal with some aspects of Small Clause (SC) analysis in English. The first chapter will explain what SCs are and present a general overview of their position in sentences. Furthermore I will briefly introduce a controversial analysis and consider the advantages of the SC analysis, as opposed to a predication analysis for example. Therefore several constituent tests will be applied to show that SCs can really function as syntactic units. Some semantic aspects will also be discussed to prove that they should be treated as units. In the next chapter I will introduce different types of SCs. German will be considered as well and a comparison of both English and German SCs will be presented. The argument for the existence of German SCs is very similar to the English. For this reason I will not present the line of reasoning once more but simply assume the same syntactical phenomenon for German as well (for a more detailed analysis of German Small Clauses see Staudinger 1997: 111-115). It will be argued that English offers some more possible constructions with SCs than German. This observation leads to the conclusion that there are some significant differences between the two languages. In a last step a possible analysis for the internal structure of Small Clauses will be presented. The need for a special analysis will be explained with respect to case-assignment. Then the suggested analysis will be applied to the presented types in unmarked word order to see if it is appropriate in practice. I will focus mainly on English here because an analysis of German SCs has to put up with different problems. Some of these struggles will also be discussed here. In the conclusion the results of the previous chapters will be summarized. In addition some ideas for further research beyond the content of this paper will be given.




A Brief History of English Syntax


Book Description

An accessible, up-to-date account of the major changes in English syntax since its beginnings up to the present day.




The Structure of Modern English


Book Description

This text is designed for undergraduate and graduate students interested in contemporary English, especially those whose primary area of interest is English as a second language. Focus is placed exclusively on English data, providing an empirical explication of the structure of the language.




The Linguistic Structure of Modern English


Book Description

This text is for advanced undergraduate and graduate students interested in contemporary English, especially those whose primary area of interest is English as a second language, primary or secondary-school education, English stylistics, theoretical and applied linguistics, or speech pathology. The emphasis is on empirical facts of English rather than any particular theory of linguistics; the text does not assume any background in language or linguistics. In this newly revised edition numerous example sentences are taken from the Corpus of Contemporary American English. A full glossary of key terms, an additional chapter on pedagogy and new sections on cognitive semantics and politeness have been added. Other changes include: completely updated print references; web links to sites of special interest and relevance; and a revised, reader-friendly layout. A companion website that includes a complete workbook with self-testing exercises and a comprehensive list of web links accompanies the book. The website can be found at the following address: http: //dx.doi.org/10.1075/z.156.workbook Students completing the text and workbook will acquire: a knowledge of the sound system of contemporary English; an understanding of the formation of English words; a comprehension of the structure of both simple and complex sentence in English; a recognition of complexities in the expression of meaning; an understanding of the context and function of use upon the structure of the language; and an appreciation of the importance of linguistic knowledge to the teaching of English to first and second-language learners. Laurel J. Brinton is Professor of English Language at the University of British Columbia. Donna M. Brinton is Senior Lecturer in TESOL at the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education."The Linguistic Structure of Modern English" is a revised edition of "The Structure of Modern English" by Laurel J. Brinton (2000).