Navigating English Grammar
A Guide to Analyzing Real Language
Navigating English Grammar presents an engaging and insightful introduction to the structure of English. Lobeck and Denham's inquiry-based approach encourages students to discover the fundamentals of English grammar by investigating their own intuitive knowledge of the language. This popular textbook equips students with a practical set of tools to analyze English in all its varieties and representations.
By exploring how English varies from community to community, and how English has changed over time, students find that English, like any other language, is a dynamic system, and that attitudes about language are often based on social perceptions rather than linguistic fact. In this fully revised and updated second edition of Navigating English Grammar, student-friendly chapters with examples taken from diverse varieties of American English illustrate the grammatical concepts of a living language, whose "rules" are decided by language users instead of language authorities. Accessible to any reader regardless of background in language and linguistics, this important textbook features:
* Entirely revised chapters on clauses, subordination and coordination, and modification
* Basic phrase structure rules and tree diagrams to provide accessible graphic representations of language structure
* Updated language examples drawn from varieties of American English that illustrate English as a dynamic system that changes over space and time
* Revisions and updates to all chapters including new exercises, text excerpts, and boxes
* A completely new capstone chapter that provides an overview of concepts and an extensive set of challenging practice exercises
Assuming no prior familiarity with the study of English grammar, Navigating English Grammar: A Guide to Analyzing Real Language, Second Edition is an excellent textbook for undergraduate courses in English grammar and related courses in English linguistics, second language acquisition, and language education programs. It is also a valuable resource for students studying the linguistics of other languages who want to improve their understanding of grammar.
Preface
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1
Introduction
What is English? Language Change and Variation
What is Grammar?
Prescriptive Grammar
Descriptive Grammar
The Components of Grammar
Syntax
Morphology
Semantics
Phonetics and phonology
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 2
Introduction
Semantic Distinctions among Nouns
Abstract and concrete
Common and proper
Count and mass
Collective nouns
Generic nouns
Noun Morphology
Inflectional affixation
Plurals
Possessives
Derivational affixation
Other ways we form nouns
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 3
Introduction
Categories that Precede Nouns
Determiners
Noun Phrases without Determiners
Numerals
Quantifiers
Order of D, NUM, and Q
Partitive, Measure, and Collective Noun Phrases
Possessive Noun Phrases
NP or N: pronoun substitution
Modifiers of Nouns
Adjectives that modify nouns
Nouns that modify nouns
Verbs that modify nouns
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 4
Introduction
Main Verbs
Main Verb Morphology
Derivational affixation and other ways we form verbs
Inflectional affixation
Infinitives
Present Tense
Past Tense
What about Future Tense?
Present and Past Participles
Suppletion
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 5
Introduction
Auxiliary Verbs
Auxiliary have
Auxiliary be
Main Verb have and be
Modals
Semi-modals
Verb strings with auxiliaries and modals
Aspect
Progressive aspect
Perfect aspect
Habitual aspect
Passive Voice and the Passive Verb String
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 6
Introduction
The Independent Clause
The Subject Position
Subjects of passive sentences
Pleonastic subjects
The Complement Position
Direct Objects
Other complements
The Tense Position
Subject-Auxiliary Inversion
Tag question formation
Negation
Diagramming Verb Strings
Do insertion
Main Verb be Raising
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 7
Introduction
Adjective Semantics
Adjective Morphology
Derivational affixation and other ways we form adjectives
Participial adjectives
Inflectional affixation: comparative and superlative adjectives
Adjective Syntax
Modifiers of adjectives
Adjective Phrase positions
Adjective phrases as prenominal and postnominal modifiers
Adjective phrases as subjective complements
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 8
Introduction
Adverb Semantics
Adverb Morphology
Derivational affixation and other ways we form adverbs
Inflectional affixation
Adverb Syntax
Modifiers of adverbs
Adverb phrase positions
Adverb phrase as modifiers in AP, PP, and NP
Adverb phrases as complements
More on Modifiers
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 9
Introduction
Preposition Semantics
Preposition Morphology
Preposition Syntax
Complements of prepositions
Prepositional phrases as complements and modifiers
Particles
Particle Semantics
Particles Syntax
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 10
Introduction
Coordination
Subordination
Clauses and sentences
Subordinate Clause Types
Tensed clause complements
Bare infinitival clause complements
To-infinitive clause complements
Participial clause complements
Wh-clause complements
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 11
Introduction
Clauses that Modify Nouns: Relative Clauses
Restrictive Relative Clauses
Tensed, reduced, and infinitival relative clauses
Nonrestrictive relative clauses
Headless relative clauses
Appositive NPs
Movable Modifiers
Movable AdvP modifiers
Movable PP modifiers
Movable NP modifiers
Movable AP modifiers
Movable VP modifiers
Movable CL modifiers
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 12
Introduction
Syntactic Categories
Complementation
Complements of Verbs
Complements of Adjectives
Complements of Prepositions
Complements of Nouns
Modification
Modifiers of Nouns
Modifiers of Adjectives
Modifiers of Adverbs
Modifiers of Prepositions
Modifiers of Verbs
Modifiers of Clauses: Movable Modifiers
Subordination
Coordination
Summary
Practice and Review
References
