A new edition of a successful undergraduate textbook on contemporary international Standard English grammar, based on Huddleston and Pullum's earlier award-winning work, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (2002). The analyses defended there are outlined here more briefly, in an engagingly accessible and informal style. Errors of the older tradition of English grammar are noted and corrected, and the excesses of prescriptive usage manuals are firmly rebutted in specially highlighted notes that explain what older authorities have called 'incorrect' and show why those authorities are mistaken. Intended for students in colleges or universities who have little or no background in grammar or linguistics, this teaching resource contains numerous exercises and online resources suitable for any course on the structure of English in either linguistics or English departments. A thoroughly modern undergraduate textbook, rewritten in an easy-to-read conversational style with a minimum of technical and theoretical terminology. Cover Half-title page Title page Copyright page Contents Preface for the Student Preface for the Instructor List of Abbreviations 1 Introduction 1.1 The English Language 1.2 Describing and Advising 1.3 The Structure of Sentences 1.4 Investigation and Disconfirmation Exercises on Chapter 1 2 Overview of the Book 2.1 Word Forms and Lexemes 2.2 Phrases and Clauses 2.3 Verbs and Verb Phrases 2.4 Complements in the Clause 2.5 Nouns and Noun Phrases 2.6 Adjectives and Adverbs 2.7 Prepositions 2.8 Adjuncts 2.9 Negation 2.10 Clause Type 2.11 Subordinate Clauses 2.12 Relative Constructions 2.13 Comparative and Superlative Constructions 2.14 Non-Finite Clauses 2.15 Coordination 2.16 Information Packaging Appendix: Notational Conventions Exercises on Chapter 2 3 Verbs and Verb Phrases 3.1 Verb Inflection 3.2 Auxiliary Verbs 3.3 Perfective and Imperfective Interpretations 3.4 Primary Tense: The Present and Preterite 3.5 Secondary Tense: The Perfect 3.6 Progressive Aspect 3.7 Modality and the Modal System Exercises on Chapter 3 4 Complements in Clauses 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The Subject 4.3 The Object 4.4 Predicative Complements 4.5 Overview of Complementation in VPs Exercises on Chapter 4 5 Nouns and Determinatives 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Number and Countability 5.3 Determiners and Determinatives 5.4 Complements in NP Structure 5.5 Internal Modifiers in Nominals 5.6 External Modifiers 5.7 The Fused-Head Construction 5.8 Pronouns 5.9 Genitive Case Exercises on Chapter 5 6 Adjectives and Adverbs 6.1 Adjectives 6.2 Adverbs Exercises on Chapter 6 7 Prepositions and Particles 7.1 The Traditional Category of Prepositions 7.2 Extending the Preposition Category 7.3 Further Category Contrasts 7.4 Grammaticized Uses of Prepositions 7.5 Preposition Stranding 7.6 The Structure of PPs 7.7 PP Complements in Clause Structure 7.8 Prepositional Idioms and Fossilization Exercises on Chapter 7 8 Adjuncts: Modifiers and Supplements 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Manner, Means, and Instrument 8.3 Act-Related Adjuncts 8.4 Space and Time 8.5 Degree 8.6 Purpose, Reason, and Result 8.7 Concessives 8.8 Conditionals 8.9 Four Other Clause-Modifying Adjuncts 8.10 Connective Adjuncts 8.11 Supplements Exercises on Chapter 8 9 Negation 9.1 Negative and Positive Clauses 9.2 Subclausal Negation 9.3 Clausal Negation 9.4 Non-Affirmative Items 9.5 Scope of Negation Exercises on Chapter 9 10 Clause Type 10.1 Speech Acts and Types of Clause 10.2 Interrogatives and Questions 10.3 Exclamatives 10.4 Imperatives and Directives 10.5 Performative Use of Speech Act Verbs 10.6 Minor Clause Types Exercises on Chapter 10 11 Subordinate Clauses 11.1 Subordination 11.2 Clause Type in Content Clauses 11.3 Declarative Content Clauses 11.4 Interrogative Content Clauses 11.5 Exclamative Content Clauses Exercises on Chapter 11 12 Relative Constructions 12.1 Relative Clauses as Modifiers in Nominals 12.2 Integrated versus Supplementary Relatives 12.3 Integrated and Supplementary Relative Words 12.4 Fused Relatives 12.5 A Relative Clause that Doesn’t Modify a Noun Exercises on Chapter 12 13 Comparatives and Superlatives 13.1 Grade Inflection 13.2 More and Most 13.3 Less and Least 13.4 Comparison of Equality 13.5 Non-Scalar Comparison 13.6 Comparative Clauses Exercises on Chapter 13 14 Non-Finite Clauses 14.1 Finite and Non-Finite Clauses 14.2 The Form and Meaning of Non-Finite Clauses 14.3 The Functions of Non-Finite Clauses 14.4 Transparent Verbs and Raised Subjects 14.5 Verbless Clauses Exercises on Chapter 14 15 Coordinations 15.1 The Structure of Coordinations 15.2 Distinctive Syntactic Properties of Coordination 15.3 The Order of Coordinated Constituents 15.4 The Marking of Coordination 15.5 Layered Coordination 15.6 Main-Clause and Lower-Level Coordination 15.7 Joint versus Distributive Coordination 15.8 Non-Basic Coordination Exercises on Chapter 15 16 Information Structure 16.1 Introduction 16.2 Passive Clauses 16.3 Extraposition 16.4 Existential Clauses 16.5 The It-Cleft Construction 16.6 Pseudo-Clefts 16.7 Dislocation: He’s clever, your dad 16.8 Preposing and Postposing 16.9 Reduction Exercises on Chapter 16 Index Despite thousands of changes, improvements, and updates, the structure of thebook remains essentially the same as in thefirst edition, with one exception: wehave added a newChapter 8, surveying the types of adjuncts occurring in thestructure of clauses. This has the happy consequence that the topics of the chaptersnow align exactly with the content ofThe Cambridge Grammar of the EnglishLanguage(Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum et al., CambridgeUniversity Press, 2002; henceforthCGEL), the much larger reference grammar onwhich this book is based. So for anyone who wants greater detail about any topic inthis book, student or instructor, thefirst course of action is simply to consult thechapter with the same number inCGEL. "In a sense, you already know English grammar. You must, in some unconscious way, if you're reading this. But being able to do something is different from understanding exactly what's being done. Knowing how to walk isn't the same as appreciating the anatomy of the human leg. The study of grammar involves developing an explicit account of how sentences are put together"-- Provided by publisher A new edition of the ground-breaking undergraduate textbook on modern Standard English grammar, now reorganised to align fully with the award-winning reference work, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. This edition has been rewritten in an easy-to-read conversational style with a minimum of technical and theoretical terminology.