具体描述
REVIEW FROM PREVIOUS EDITION: 'A slim and useful student textbook for English Syntax. Although most of the examples are from English, the book introduces general concepts which provide the necessary tools for a basic syntactic analysis of any language. The book concentrates on topics that will remain useful to the student who does not go on to study linguistics but, say, literature or EFL teaching.' - The Year's Work in English Studies In this revised and fully updated new edition of his popular textbook, Jim Miller discusses the central concepts of syntax which are applied in a wide range of university courses, in business communication, in teaching and in speech therapy. The book deals with concepts which are central to traditional grammar but have been greatly refined over the past forty years: parts of speech and how to recognise them, constructions and their interrelationships, subordinate clauses and how to recognise the different types, subjects and objects, Agents and Patients and other roles. The book draws out the connections between syntax and meaning and between syntax and discourse; in particular, a new chapter focuses on the analysis of discourse and the final chapter deals with tense, aspect and voice, topics which are central to the construction of texts and are of major importance in second language learning. They are also areas where meaning and grammar interconnect very closely. Key features: *Coverage of central themes with a wide application outside the study of syntax *Explains basic concepts, supported by a glossary of technical terms *Exercises and sources for further reading provided.
Syntax: The Architecture of Meaning This book delves into the intricate and fascinating world of English syntax, exploring the fundamental principles that govern how words are arranged to create meaningful sentences. Far beyond a mere grammatical exercise, syntax is presented as the invisible scaffolding upon which all communication is built, the underlying logic that allows us to convey complex ideas, emotions, and narratives. We will embark on a comprehensive journey, starting with the foundational concepts of sentence structure and progressively building towards a nuanced understanding of the sophisticated mechanisms that underpin English grammar. Our exploration begins with the building blocks: phrases. We will meticulously examine the different types of phrases – noun phrases, verb phrases, adjectival phrases, adverbial phrases, and prepositional phrases – dissecting their internal structure and their crucial roles within a sentence. You'll learn to identify the head of each phrase, the word that dictates the phrase's grammatical category and its core meaning, and understand how modifiers, complements, and adjuncts attach to this head, enriching and specifying its function. This granular analysis will equip you with the tools to break down even the most complex sentence into its constituent, manageable parts. From phrases, we ascend to the clause, the fundamental unit of meaning that contains a subject and a predicate. We will differentiate between independent clauses, which can stand alone as complete sentences, and dependent clauses, which rely on an independent clause for their full meaning. The various types of dependent clauses – noun clauses, adjective clauses (relative clauses), and adverbial clauses – will be explored in detail, highlighting their specific functions in adding information, describing nouns, or modifying verbs. Understanding the interplay between different clause types is essential for grasping the flow and complexity of written and spoken English. A central focus of this work will be the theory of grammatical relations, examining how elements within a sentence relate to each other. We will explore concepts like subject, verb, object (direct and indirect), and complements, defining their roles and the syntactic rules that govern their co-occurrence. The notion of government and binding, a foundational theory in generative grammar, will provide a powerful framework for understanding how grammatical properties are transferred and constrained across sentence structures. This theoretical lens will illuminate the deep-seated principles that dictate well-formedness and ungrammaticality. We will also dedicate significant attention to the various sentence structures that English employs. The distinction between simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences will be clearly delineated, with illustrative examples demonstrating how these structures are used to convey different levels of information and relationships between ideas. Understanding these structures is not merely about classification; it's about appreciating how authors and speakers strategically choose them to achieve specific rhetorical effects and logical clarity. The concept of grammatical functions will be thoroughly investigated. We will move beyond simply identifying parts of speech to understanding the roles that words and phrases play in the sentence, such as subject, predicate, object, adverbial, and so on. This functional perspective is crucial for understanding how meaning is encoded and how sentence constituents contribute to the overall message. Furthermore, we will delve into the fascinating domain of movement phenomena. Many syntactic structures in English are best understood not as static arrangements but as the result of underlying theoretical structures undergoing transformations. We will explore concepts like wh-movement (as seen in questions like "Who did you see?") and topicalization (where a sentence element is moved to the beginning for emphasis, e.g., "That book, I haven't read"). Understanding these movements reveals the dynamic nature of syntax and offers insights into the cognitive processes involved in sentence construction. The book will also address the critical role of agreement, particularly subject-verb agreement and pronoun-antecedent agreement. We will examine the rules that govern these phenomena, including exceptions and the complexities introduced by intervening phrases or collective nouns. Mastering agreement is fundamental to producing grammatically sound English. We will also explore the principles of constituency, the idea that words group together to form meaningful units. Techniques for testing constituency, such as substitution and coordination, will be introduced, providing practical methods for analyzing sentence structure. This will help you to see sentences not as a linear string of words but as a hierarchical organization of nested constituents. The concept of scope will also be examined, particularly in relation to quantifiers and negation. How do quantifiers like "every" or "some" interact with negation like "not" to create different meanings? This exploration will highlight the subtle but significant impact of syntactic arrangements on interpretation. Throughout the book, we will draw upon syntactic evidence to support our claims, analyzing authentic examples from a variety of sources – literature, news articles, everyday conversation – to illustrate the abstract principles in action. This empirical approach will ground the theoretical discussions in the reality of language use. We will also touch upon the historical development of certain syntactic structures in English, providing context and demonstrating how the language has evolved over time. Understanding these historical shifts can shed light on present-day grammatical patterns and the underlying reasons for their existence. Moreover, the book will engage with the interface between syntax and semantics, exploring how syntactic structure directly influences the meaning of a sentence. We will discuss how different syntactic choices can lead to different interpretations and how syntactic ambiguity arises. Finally, we will consider the variations in English syntax across different dialects and registers. While focusing on a standard model, we will acknowledge the rich diversity of English and the ways in which syntactic patterns can differ. By the end of this comprehensive exploration, you will possess a deep and nuanced understanding of how English sentences are constructed, the principles that govern their formation, and the relationship between structure and meaning. This knowledge will not only enhance your ability to analyze and interpret complex English texts but also empower you to construct clear, precise, and effective sentences in your own writing and speech. This is an invitation to unravel the elegant architecture of meaning that underpins one of the world's most widely spoken languages.
