LINGUIST List 22.621
Sun Feb 06 2011
Review: Syntax: Van Gelderen (2010)
Editor for this issue: Anja Wanner <anjalinguistlist.org>
1. Evans Mecha , An Introduction to the Grammar of English (Revised Edition)
Message 1: An Introduction to the Grammar of English (Revised Edition)
Date: 06-Feb-2011
From: Evans Mecha <evans_gesurayahoo.com>
Subject: An Introduction to the Grammar of English (Revised Edition)
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AUTHOR: Elly van Gelderen TITLE: An Introduction to the Grammar of English (Revised Edition) PUBLISHER: John Benjamins YEAR: 2010
Evans Gesura Mecha, Department of English, Kampala University
SUMMARY
In this textbook, van Gelderen combines a traditional grammar approach with generative grammar to introduce the analysis of the structure of sentences in the English language. The book offers a practical introduction to analysing English sentences for students who may or may not take further linguistics classes at the undergraduate level. Basic concepts of the grammar of English are introduced, with emphasis on structure, in a reader-friendly manner that encourages readers to use linguistic arguments. Each of the eleven chapters begins with a brief introduction to grammatical concepts, builds up the basic arguments, which are followed by exercises, answers to these exercises, and so-called special topics such as split infinitives, passives and dummies, to mention a few. Additionally, there are highlights to key concepts and intermediate summaries using tables and figures. The revised edition has four review blocks, one more than the first edition of the textbook, which are followed by potential exam questions. The book ends with a seven page glossary, and a shortened reference list (consisting of two web pages and nine books). Unlike the first edition, this edition includes an index. Throughout the book, the author minimizes the use of abstract discussions and syntactic jargon, with the aim of accommodating readers who do not have any background in linguistics, e.g., those in the departments of humanities, philosophy, or education. To that end, she uses examples picked from poetry, jokes and puns to generate interest in the aspects of grammar under discussion. This being a revised edition, the author has updated example sentences and cartoons, also texts for analysis have been rearranged and additions have been made to the so-called special topics sections. The author has also incorporated some new subtopics such as timelines for tense. The book now ends with a chapter on "Special sentences," clauses that involve movement, such as wh-questions, topicalization and passives. Tree diagrams for these constructions are provided (they were not included in the first edition of the book). One should also note that the title of book has been changed: The subtitle ("Syntactic Arguments and Socio-Historical Background") is gone, along with some socio-historical details. In chapter 1, "Introduction," van Gelderen discusses the concept of grammatical competence (the idea that native speakers intuitively know what constitutes the grammar of their language). She also briefly runs through the issue of descriptivism ("what people really say") as opposed to prescriptivism ("what some people think ought to be said") with the aim of blending the two approaches in setting out the grammar of the English language. Further, she mentions aspects that are usually subsumed under the notion of context, such as formal and informal uses of English. Chapter 2 is dedicated to the classification of syntactic categories or parts of speech in English. Van Gelderen divides the categories into two: lexical and functional or grammatical categories. The main criterion for making the distinction is semantic: Lexical categories are determined by virtue of them having meaning whereas grammatical categories are functional and thus have no meaning. Van Gelderen makes a transition from the semantic view of categories to a structural analysis, which is common in similar textbooks. In Chapter 3 ("Phrases") van Gelderen discusses how to combine lexical items into phrases, in the tradition of context-free phrase structure rules. The structure of phrases is represented in tree diagrams, in which constituents are labeled with relatively standard names (S=Sentence; NP=Noun Phrase; VP=Verb Phrase; PP=Prepositional Phrase; CP=Complementizer Phrase; N=Noun; Det=Determiner, more advanced labels, such as DP [for Determiner Phrase] and TP [Tense Phrase] are avoided). The constituent structure of a sentence can be represented either as bracketed structure or as a tree diagram, but the author prefers the latter. Chapter 3 is followed by a review of chapters 1-3. In chapter 4, "Functions in the Sentence," six major grammatical functions (subject, predicate, direct object, indirect object, complement, and adverbial) are introduced. The object and predicate functions are used as the basis for distinguishing verbs, and there is an explication of what light verbs are. In chapter 5, "Functions of Prepositions and Particles," the author discusses the differences in the functions of adverbials and objects. The notion of adjunction is demonstrated without being explicitly mentioned. In chapter 6, "The structure of the verb group in the verb phrase," van Gelderen looks at the structure of the verb group with reference to auxiliary verbs, tenses and finiteness. A second review, of chapters 4-6, is given after chapter 6. Chapters 7 and 8 deal with complex sentences. In chapter 7, entitled "Finite Clauses: Embedded and Coordinated," sentences with coordination and subordination are described and analysed. The complementizer (C) is introduced as the syntactic head of the Complementizer Phrase (CP). Both the complementizer and the Complementizer Phrase (CP) are essential in handling clausal elements that are considered to be pre-nuclear, parenthetic, and post-nuclear in sentences. The CP is a node in a syntactic tree that replaces S' in the X-bar representation of sentences. Non-finite sentences are also discussed. Chapter 8 is followed by a review of chapters 7-8. In chapter 9, van Gelderen explicates the structure of the Prepositional Phrase, Adjectival Phrase, Adverbial Phrase, and Noun Phrase. The focus is on how phrases function within other phrases as modifiers and complements to the heads of phrases. The functions of modifier and complement in the Noun Phrase are considered to be similar to those of the adverbial and the object in the Verb Phrase. Chapter 10, "Clauses as parts of Noun Phrases and Adjectival Phrases,'' deals with modifiers or complements found within phrases in relative clauses. Relative clauses are defined as clauses that provide more information about a noun. The structural analyses in the chapters coming after chapter 7 all make use of the notion of the Complementizer Phrase (CP). Chapter 11 is about so-called special sentences, sentences that involve syntactic movement, for example interrogatives. In particular, wh-questions are analysed as involving the movement of an operator (the wh-phrase) to the left-periphery (in the CP). The same analysis is considered to apply to exclamatives. The final part of the chapter briefly mentions the analysis of topicalization, passives, cleft and pseudo-cleft constructions. The structures are explained using the notion of movement, and a few tree diagrams are given (not included in the first edition). The chapter is followed by a review of chapters 9-11.
EVALUATION
The text has numerous attributes that make it a good choice for students who would like to improve their knowledge of the basic syntax of English. The chapters can be easily covered in the course of a semester, and the book contains useful exercises after every topic. Although it targets an audience without prior knowledge of linguistics, it does not oversimplify grammatical concepts, as is done in some comparable texts, such as Altenberg and Vago (2010). The textbook is based on both generativist and traditional grammar approaches. Controversial syntactic analyses are avoided. For example, there is no discussion of mixed category constructions such as the verbal gerund, deverbal nouns, or participles, which have verbal and adjectival properties. The book is restricted to a purely syntactic approach, with limited discussion of morphology and semantics. It does not consider insights gained from the study of phonology that inform some aspects of syntax, as discussed in Nelson and Greenbaum (2009), or the study of pragmatics, as discussed in Brinton & Brinton (2010). While the notion of context is mentioned, for example with regard to formal and informal uses of English, there is no explanation of how extra-linguistic contexts and co-text interact in language structure. For example, the term topicalization, introduced in chapter 11, is associated with syntactic movement of topic elements to the sentence-initial position. It is pointed out that topicalization can serve to front old information, but there is no introduction to the classification of old and new information or to information structure (e.g., Erteschik-Shir 2007); more content is needed on the pragmatic constraints that are responsible for movement of sentential constituents. Overall, however, the analyses presented can serve as a good introduction to the grammar of English as well as a launch-pad to more complex analyses for serious readers of syntax. It is for this reason the text is, and will remain, popular in the teaching of undergraduate courses in English syntax.
REFERENCES
Brinton, J. L. & Brinton, M.D. (2010). The Linguistic Structure of Modern English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Altenberg, E. & Robert M. Vago. (2010). English Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Erteschik-Shir, N. (2007). Information Structure: the Syntax-Discourse Interface. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nelson, G. & Sidney Greenbaum. (2009, 3rd Edition). An Introduction to English Grammar. London: Longman.
Leech, G. and Svartvik, J. (2004, 3rd Ed.). A Communicative Grammar of English. London: Longman.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Evans Gesura Mecha is a fulltime lecturer at Kampala University (Uganda). His research interests are interface phenomena such as the syntax-discourse pragmatics interface, phonology-morphology interface, as well as the morphosyntax of Ekegusii (a Bantu language), multilingualism and education, and the acquisition of English in an SLE context.
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