English Syntax

This collection of pivotal issues about syntactic analysis bridges the gap between two extremes: Quirk et al.'s classic, yet voluminous standard grammar The Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (CGEL, 1985) and slim booklets with sample solutions. Written for students and teachers alike, this textbook introduces basic concepts, deepens preexisting knowledge, prepares students for various exam contexts and provides hands-on teaching material. Each chapter provides theoretical explanations, which are immediately illustrated by numerous complete sample analyses of sentences taken both from the CGEL as well as from more recent British and American news articles. The final part of this textbook offers a comprehensive practice section for self-study using sentences which are divided into three levels of difficulty and come with model solutions.

Dr. Jenny Arendholz lehrt synchrone Sprachwissenschaft und Sprachpraxis des Englischen an der LMU München.

Preface List of abbreviations (alphabetical order) List of abbreviations (structural order) 1 Basic Introduction and Syntactic Functions - Jenny Arendholz 1.1 Some Structural Facts and Layout Conventions 1.2 The Seven Syntactic Functions 1.3 Tricky Business: Oi vs. Oprep 2 The Internal Structure of Phrases - Jenny Arendholz 2.1 Characteristic Features of Phrases 2.2 The Noun Phrase (NP) 2.3 The Adjective Phrase (AdjP) and the Adverb Phrase (AdvP) 2.4 The Verb Phrase (VP) 2.5 The Prepositional Phrase (PP) 2.6 Tricky Business 2.6.1 Nouns in the Premodifier Slot of NPs 2.6.2 Embedding 2.6.3 Complementation 2.6.4 Complex Determinatives 3 Word Classes - Michaela Pitsch 3.1 Nouns 3.2 Adjectives and Adverbs 3.3 Adjectives vs. Adverbs 3.4 Pronouns and Determiners 3.5 Pronouns vs. Determiners 3.6 Prepositions and Conjunctions 3.7 Prepositions vs. Subordinating Conjunctions 3.8 Adverbs vs. Subordinating Conjunctions 3.9 Numerals 3.10 Words of Unique Function 3.11 Tricky Business 3.11.1 Some as an Adverb 3.11.2 Change of Word Class 4 The Verb - Sandra Neigefind 4.1 Distinction According to Word Class 4.1.1 Full Verbs 4.1.2 Modal Auxiliary Verbs 4.1.3 A Special Case of Modals: Catenative Verb Constructions 4.1.4 Primary Verbs 4.2 Copular Verbs 4.3 Multi-Word Verbs 4.3.1 Phrasal Verbs 4.3.2 Prepositional Verbs 4.3.3 Phrasal-Prepositional Verbs 4.3.4 Detection Rules 5 An Introduction to Complex Sentences - Hannah Jahner & Jenny Arendholz 5.1 Clauses vs. Phrases 5.2 Sentences and Clause Combinations 5.3 Subordinate Clauses 5.3.1 Nominal Clauses 5.3.2 Adverbial Clauses 5.4 Embedded Clauses 5.5 Summary: Syntactic Functions of Dependent Clauses 6 Finite Clauses - Jenny Arendholz & Michaela Pitsch 6.1 Adverbial Clauses 6.2 Wh-Clauses 6.3 That-Clauses 6.4 Attributive Relative Clauses 6.5 Nominal Relative Clauses 6.6 Sentential Relative Clauses 6.7 Comparative Clauses 6.8 Tricky Business: Is that Still a Problem? 7 Non-Finite Clauses and Verbless Clauses - Lioba Arnoldi 7.1 -ing-Participle Clauses 7.1.1 Subordinate -ing-Participle Clauses 7.1.2 Attributive -ing-Participle Clauses 7.2 -ed-Participle Clauses 7.2.1 Subordinate -ed-Participle Clauses 7.2.2 Attributive -ed-Participle Clauses 7.3 to-Infinitive Clauses 7.3.1 Subordinate to-Infinitive Clauses 7.3.2 Attributive to-Infinitive Clauses 7.4 Bare Infinitive Clauses 7.5 Verbless Clauses 7.6 Tricky Business 7.6.1 Catenative Verbs and Non-Finite Forms 7.6.2 Gradience in Non-Finite Clauses 8 Appositions - Franziska Kirchhoff 8.1 Definition and Terminology 8.2 Different Forms of Apposition 8.2.1 Phrasal Apposition 8.2.2 Clausal Apposition 8.3 Indicators of Apposition 8.4 Tricky Business 8.4.1 The Appositive of-Phrase 8.4.2 Distinguishing Apposition from Coordination 9 Coordination - Jenny Arendholz 9.1 Terminology and Basic Structures 9.2 Coordinators 9.3 Types of Coordination 9.4 The Analysis of Coordination 9.4.1 The Ellipsis Strategy 9.4.2 The Conjoint Strategy 9.4.3 The Shift Strategy 9.4.4 Detection Rules 10 Means of Emphasis and Other Deviating Sentence Patterns - Jenny Arendholz 10.1 Theme and Rheme 10.2 Fronting and Inversion 10.3 Cleft Sentences Proper and Pseudo-Cleft Sentences 10.4 Extraposition of Clausal Subjects and Objects 10.5 Existential Constructions 11 Practice Makes Perfect - Britta van den Berg & Jenny Arendholz 11.1 Easy Sentences 11.2 Moderate Sentences 11.4 Difficult Sentences References Primary Sources Secondary Sources Secondary Online Sources Index