English Grammar

An Introduction

Second Edition

Peter Collins and Carmella Hollo

palgrave
macmillan
Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
Symbols and Conventions

Part A Grammatical Description

1 Introduction
1.1 Grammar and the Description of Languag
1.2 Defining Grammatical Categories
1.3 Grammatical Categories and 'Prototypes'
1.4 Morphology: Words and Lexemes
1.5 Constituent Structure
1.6 Classes and Functions
1.7 Descriptive and Prescriptive Grammar
1.8 Grammar and the Description of Texts
1.9 Grammar and Language Variety
Exercises

2 A Preliminary Overview
2.1 The Parts of Speech
2.2 Words and Phrases
2.3 The Open Classes
2.4 The Closed Classes
2.5 Basic and Non-basic Clauses
2.6 The Structure of Basic Clauses: a Preview
Exercises

3 Nouns and Noun Phrases

3.1 Subclasses of Nouns
3.2 Proper Nouns
3.3 Pronouns
3.4 Noun Phrase Structure
3.5 Pre-head Dependents
3.6 Post-head Dependents
3.7 Nominalisation
Exercises

v
VI CONTENTS

Verbs and Verb Phrases 71

4.1 Verbs 71
4.2 Auxiliary Verbs 75
4.3 Verb Phrase Structure and Meaning 78
Exercises 85

Adjectives, Adverbs, Prepositions and Associated Phrases 89

5.1 Adjectives 89
5.2 Adjective Phrase Structure 92
5.3 Adverbs 93
5.4 Adverb Phrase Structure 95
5.5 Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases 95
Exercises 98

Clause Structure and Clause Type 101

6.1 The Structure of Basic Clauses 101
6.2 FiveMajor Complementation Patterns 103
6.3 Non-central Types of Complement 104
6.4 Clause Type ('mood') 110
6.5 'The Sun Rising' A Text-based Demonstration
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114
6.6 Negation in the Clause 116
Exercises 119

Subordination and Coordination 123

7.1 Sentences and Clauses 123
7.2 Subordination and Coordination 124
7.3 Subordinate Clauses 127
7.4 Non-finite Clauses 135
7.5 Verbless Clauses 139
7.6 Coordination 139
7.7 'Flattened Tree' Analysis 141
Exercises 147

Information Structure in the Clause 151

8.1 Information Structure 151
8.2 Active and Passive Clauses 152
8.3 Subject—complement Switch 154
8.4 Extraposition 155
8.5 Existential Sentences 156
8.6 Cleft Sentences 159
8.7 'Reordering' 160
Exercises 164
 CONTENTS VII

Part B Looking at Language in Context 167

9 From Separate Sentences to Connected Text 169

9.1 Some Preliminary Considerations 169
9.2 Reconsidering Sentences 170
9.3 Cohesion 175
9.4 Analysis of Cohesion in Sample Texts 187
Exercises 192

10 Text and Context 194

10.1 Dimensions of Register:Field, Mode and Tenor 194
10.2 Further Dimensions: Functions and Genre 210
Exercises 212

11 Text Analysis Putting It All Together

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215
11.1 'Top-down'Approach 215
11.2 'Bottom-up'Approach 217
11.3 Demonstration Analyses: 'The Scope of
Linguistics' and 'Mysteries' 221
Exercises 231

Appendixes
A anyone lived in a pretty how town 234
B Recipe 236
C Seaview advertisement 237
D Army recruitment advertisement 238
E Extract from 'Creature Features' 239
F Interview with Sydney band FourPlay 240
G 'Mysteries' 243
H The Sun Rising 245
/ When Arnie Speaks, There's No Going Back 247
/ The Rising Levels ofDebt that Stop Workers Clocking Off 249
K The Scope ofLinguistics 252
Answers to Exercises 254
Glossary 266
Some Useful References 277
Index 279