An Introduction to the Grammar of English: Syntactic Arguments and Socio-Historical Background (review)

What do we know about the language? Why do we put the words in a particular order? What are the rules? Elly van Gelderen addresses these questions in her textbook An introduction to the grammar of English. The book is written in clear and lively language, supported by a glossary, a variety of tables, and examples from poetry and fiction. Its eleven chapters are divided into four parts (categories, phrases, functions, embedded sentences) with review and optional sections after each. The author provides some references to more detailed discussions of the material covered in the textbook and at the end of each chapter gives some exercises for developing skills in argumentation and usage of theoretical knowledge.

Ch. 1, ‘Introduction’ (1–10), gives examples of what the speaker intuitively knows about the language and provides an explanation for that knowledge based on universal grammar. Such aspects of language as phonology, morphology, and syntax are introduced by the variety of examples. In Ch. 2, ‘Categories’ (11–30), the author introduces the notions of lexical and functional (grammatical) categories and provides a description of the categories. Some sections are supported by tables listing differences between noun/verb and between adjective/adverb in semantic, morphological, and syntactic terms. Ch. 3, ‘Phrases’ (31–56), studies the tree structure of phrases and sentences, introducing such terms as tree structure, branches, and nodes, and describes the relationships between the parts of a sentence.

Ch. 4, ‘Functions in the sentence’ (61–78), introduces functions such as subject, predicate, direct and indirect object and shows how they are realized in the sentence. The chapter also distinguishes between transitive and intransitive verbs and provides a tree structure for each type of these. Ch. 5, ‘More functions: Of prepositions and particles’ (79–96), discusses adverbial functions and introduces prepositional, phrasal, and phrasal prepositional verbs. Ch. 6, ‘The structure of the verb group in the VP’ (95–111), discusses the structure of the verb in more detail, differentiates lexical and auxiliary verbs, and defines and characterizes the latter. The chapter also discusses the notion of finiteness and nonfiniteness.

Ch. 7, ‘Finite clauses: Embedded and coordinated’ (117–33), deals with finite embedded sentences, indicates their functions (direct object, subject, subject predicate, adverbial) and discusses the structure of coordinated sentences. Ch. 8, ‘Non-finite clause’ (135–45), deals with nonfinite sentences (sentences containing infinitives and present participles or past participles, where both the subject and the complementizer can be absent) and provides the tree structure for this kind of clause. Ch. 9, ‘The structure of the NP, AdjP, AdvP, and PP’ (147–65), discusses the different functions (determiner, modifier, head, and complement) of elements in the NP, AdjP, AdvP, and PP and provides some arguments (involving word order, pronominalization, and coordination) for distinguishing complements from modifiers. Ch. 10, ‘Clauses and parts of NPs, AdjPs, and PPs’ (167–80), shows that finite and nonfinite clauses can function inside NP phrases as relatives (modifiers) or complements and as complements inside AdjP phrases. Relative clauses, in their turn, are divided into restrictive and nonrestrictive; nonfinite clauses functioning as modifiers are treated as reduced relative clauses. Ch. 11, ‘Special sentences’ (181–88), discusses sentences where an element moves (questions, exclamations, topicalizations, clefts, and passives).

This textbook is written for students who know basic English grammar, and its aim is to help students understand the structure of English sentences. VG does not try to give one solution to linguistic problems but brings together various options that the student can choose among.