Navigating English Grammar

ANNE LOBECK and KRISTIN DENHAM are Professors of Linguistics at Western Washington University, where they teach courses on syntax, English grammar, and linguistics and education, and where they both enjoy making linguistic knowledge accessible and relevant for everyone. In addition to numerous publications on integrating linguistics in education, Lobeck and Denham have also co-edited Linguistics at School: Language Awareness in Primary and Secondary Education (2010) and co-authored Why Study Linguistics (2019) and Linguistics for Everyone (2013).

• Dedication vPreface xiiiAcknowledgments xvii1 What is Grammar and How Do We Study It? 1Introduction 1What is English? Language Change and Variation 3What is Grammar? 5Prescriptive grammar 5Descriptive grammar 9The Components of Grammar 10Syntax 11Morphology 13Derivational affixation 14Inflectional affixation 14Analytic and synthetic languages 15Word formation rules 16Semantics 16Phonetics and phonology 19Summary 20Exercises 212 Nouns 25Introduction 25Semantic Distinctions Among Nouns 26Abstract and concrete 26Common and proper 27Count and mass 28Collective nouns 30Generic nouns 31Noun Morphology 32Inflectional affixation 33Plurals 33Possessives 34Derivational affixation 36Other ways we form nouns 37Summary 38Exercises 383 Noun Phrases 43Introduction 43Categories that Precede Nouns 44Determiners 44Noun phrases without determiners 47Numerals 48Quantifiers 49Order of D, NUM, and Q 51Partitive, Measure, and Collective Noun Phrases 53Possessive Noun Phrases 54NP or N: Pronoun substitution 55Modifiers of Nouns 57Adjectives that modify nouns 57Nouns that modify nouns 59Verbs that modify nouns 61Summary 63Exercises 634 Verbs 67Introduction 67Main Verbs 68Main Verb Morphology 69Derivational affixation and other ways we form verbs 69Inflectional affixation 70Infinitives 70Present tense 73Past tense 75What about future tense? 77Present and past participles 78Suppletion 79Summary 80Exercises 815 Verb Phrases 85Introduction 85Auxiliary Verbs 86Auxiliary have 86Auxiliary be 87Main verb have 87Main verb be 88Modals 89Semi- modals 91Verb Strings with Auxiliaries and Modals 91Aspect 92Progressive aspect 93Perfect aspect 94Habitual aspect 96Passive Voice and the Passive Verb String 97Summary 99Exercises 996 The Clause 103Introduction 103The Independent Clause 104The subject position 105Subjects of passive sentences 106Pleonastic subjects 106The complement position 110The Tense position 113Subject–auxiliary inversion 114Tag question formation 115Negation 116Diagramming Verb Strings 118Do Insertion 120Main verb be raising 122Summary 123Exercises 1247 Adjectives 129Introduction 129Adjective Semantics 130Adjective Morphology 132Derivational affixation and other ways we form adjectives 132Participial adjectives 133Inflectional affixation: comparative and superlative adjectives 134Adjective Syntax 135Modifiers of adjectives 136The degree word test for adjective phrases 137Adjective phrase positions 139Adjective phrases as prenominal and postnominal modifiers of nouns 139Adjective phrases as subjective complements 141Other subjective complements: NP and PP 142Direct objects versus subjective complements 143The seem test for adjective phrases 144Summary 146Exercises 1468 Adverbs 151Introduction 151Adverb Semantics 152Adverb Morphology 153Derivational affixation and other ways we form adverbs 153Flat adverbs 154Inflectional affixation 155Adverb Syntax 155Modifiers of adverbs 155Adverb phrase positions 158Adverb phrases as modifiers in AP, NP, and PP 159Adverb phrases as complements 161More on Modifiers 161Summary 162Exercises 1629 Prepositions and Particles 167Introduction 167Preposition Semantics 168Preposition Morphology 170Preposition Syntax 171Complements of prepositions 171Objects of prepositions 171Other complements of prepositions 172Modifiers of prepositions 173Prepositional phrases as modifiers and complements 174PP modifiers of nouns 174PP modifiers of verbs and clauses 175PPs as complements 176Indirect object complements 178Particles 182Particle semantics 182Particle syntax 183Summary 186Exercises 18710 Coordination and Subordination 191Introduction 191Coordination 192Subordination 195Clauses and sentences 196Subordinate Clause Types 198Tensed clause complements 200Bare infinitival clause complements 203To- infinitive clause complements 206Participial clause complements 208Wh- clause complements 209Summary 210Exercises 21111 More on Modification 219Introduction 219Clauses that Modify Nouns: Relative Clauses 220Restrictive relative clauses 220Tensed, reduced, and infinitival relative clauses 223Nonrestrictive relative clauses 226Headless relative clauses 227Appositive NPs 228Movable Modifiers 229Movable AdvP modifiers 229Movable PP modifiers 229Movable NP modifiers 230Movable AP modifiers 230Movable VP modifiers 231Movable CL modifiers 231Summary 232Exercises 23312 Navigating and Analyzing: Review 239Introduction 240Syntactic Categories 240Complementation 241Complements of verbs 242NP complements of verbs 242AP complements of verbs 243AdvP complements of verbs 243PP complements of verbs 243VP complements of verbs 243Clause complements of verbs 244Complements of adjectives 244Complements of prepositions 244Complements of nouns 245Modification 245Modifiers of nouns 246Modifiers of adjectives 246Modifiers of adverbs 247Modifiers of prepositions 247Modifiers of verbs 247Modifiers of clauses: Movable modifiers 247Subordination 248Coordination 250Summary 250Practice and Review 251References 255Index 257