The Grammar of Discourse

The Grammar of Discourse PDF

Author: Robert Longacre

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 439

ISBN-13: 1461580188

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While this volume is based on an earlier work, An Anatomy of Speech Notions (1976), the overall orientation of the present volume is distinctive enough to make it a new work. The former volume was essentially a half-way house to discourse. While including a chapter on discourse struc ture, it was not as a whole explicitly oriented towards con siderations of context. The present volume, however, strives to achieve a more consistently contextual approach to lan guage. A great deal of research and theorizing concerning discourse grammar or textlinguistics has characterized the past decade of linguistic studies. This recent work has, of course, influenced the present volume. In addition, my personal research in several areas has led to increased insistence on the indispensability of discourse studies. Crucial here was my direction of field workshops involving personnel of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, first in relation to languages of Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador (1974- 1975), and later in relation to languages of Mexico (1978). Of further relevance have been my own studies of narrative structure in Biblical Hebrew. Last but not least, is the stimulus and feedback which I have received from my graduate students (whose research is embodied in several theses and dissertations), especially Keith Beavon, Shin Ja Joo Huang, Larry Jones, Mildred Larson, Linda Lloyd, and Mike Walrod.

The Grammar of the English Tense System

The Grammar of the English Tense System PDF

Author:

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2008-08-22

Total Pages: 854

ISBN-13: 3110199882

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The Grammar of the English Tense System forms the first volume of a four-volume set, The Grammar of the English Verb Phrase. The other volumes, to appear over the next few years, will deal with mood and modality, aspect and voice. The book aims to provide a grammar of tense which can be used both as an advanced reference grammar (for example by MA-level or postgraduate students of English or linguistics) and as a scientific study which can act as a basis for and stimulus to further research. It provides not only a wealth of data but also a unique framework for the study of the English tense system, which achieves great predictive and explanatory power on the basis of a limited number of relatively simple rules. The framework provided allows for an analysis of the semantics of individual tenses which reflects the role of tenses not only in locating situations in time relative to speech time but also in relating situations in time relative to one another to form temporally coherent discourse. Attention is paid to the relations between tenses. On the one hand, we can identify sets of tenses linked to particular temporal areas such as the past or the future. These sets of tenses provide for the expression of a system of temporal relations in a stretch of discourse in which all the situations are located within the same temporal area. On the other hand, there are many contexts in which speakers might in theory choose between two or more tenses to locate a situation (e.g., when we choose between the past tense and the present perfect to locate a situation before speech time), and the book examines the difference that a choice of one or the other tense may make within a discourse context. The book moves from a detailed exploration of the meaning and use of individual tenses to a thorough analysis of the way in which tenses can be seen to function together as sets, and finally to a detailed examination of tenses in, and tenses interacting with, temporal adverbials. Original data is used frequently throughout the book to illustrate the theory discussed.

A Practical and Critical Grammar of the English Language

A Practical and Critical Grammar of the English Language PDF

Author: Noble Butler

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-06-15

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9781330085790

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Excerpt from A Practical and Critical Grammar of the English Language A certain class of persons think to show their superiority to the common herd by speaking contemptuously of grammar. Like Mrs. Squeers, they are thankful that they are "no grammarians;" and if want is a good ground for thankfulness, it must be admitted that some of them have much to be thankful for. The cant which is fashionable among them is sometimes very amusing. Suppose, for instance, that one of them should conceive the idea of contending for the correctness of "Where is it at?" His argument would probably be in the following style: "In fullness of thought the common people show themselves superior to the mere grammarian. "Where is it?" expresses the idea to the grammarians mind, it is true; but the man of the people feels his mind too full to be satisfied with so jejune an expression, and he pours out his fullness in 'Where is it at?'" Or suppose the beauties of you is should strike his fancy. He will then discourse in the following strain: Nothing but the prejudice of grammarians has prevented the adoption of you is in stead of the stiff and pedantic you are. You being singular when it denotes but one, how absurd to have it pretending to be plural! It may be said that while you is of the second person is is of the third; but shall we reject so euphonious an expression for the sake of grammatical person? To call such expressions incorrect English is to assume the point. No one says that ella e is bad Italian, and that ella sei is good. Dr. Webster has proved that you were should be changed to you was, and to be consistent we should change you are to you is. Grammarians of the smaller order may contend for you are; but go into the fields and the markets, and you will find you is flowing from lips that disdain to be locked up by grammatical rules. The office of the grammar of a language is to state what the language is. If it does not do so, it is not grammar; if it does state what the language is, he who sneers at it may think that he shows his superiority, but he shows nothing but his vanity and presumption. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1861)

A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1861) PDF

Author: Simon Kerl

Publisher:

Published: 2008-06-01

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9781436722629

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This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language

A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language PDF

Author: Randolph Quirk

Publisher: London ; New York : Longman

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 1800

ISBN-13:

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From the time when we started collaborating as a team in the 1960s, we envisaged not a grammar but a series of grammars. In 1972, there appeared the first volume in this series, A Grammar of Contemporary English (GCE). This was followed soon afterwards by two shorter works, A Communicative Grammar of English (CGE) and A University Grammar of English (UGE), published in the United States with the title A Concise Grammar of Contemporary English. With A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, we attempt something much more ambitious: a culmination of our joint work, which results in a grammar that is considerably larger and richer than GCE and hence superordinate to it. Yet, as with our other volumes since GCE, it is also a grammar that incorporates our own further research on grammatical structure as well as the research of scholars worldwide who have contributed to the description of English and to developments in linguistic theory. - Preface.

Comparative Grammar

Comparative Grammar PDF

Author: Victoria Roberts

Publisher:

Published: 2006-12-21

Total Pages: 2543

ISBN-13: 9780415341998

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The study of comparative grammar has long been a concern of linguistic theory. To the extent that, by studying the aspects of grammar which vary, we might arrive at an idea of what does not vary, this study can be seen as one way of studying universals of grammar. Although it has antecedents in the Middle Ages, comparative grammar was not systematically studied until the nineteenth century, and then purely from a historical perspective. In the past forty years, however, two important approaches have emerged: Greenbergian language typology and the Chomskyan programme based on the idea of the interaction of the principles and parameters of universal grammar. In recent years, these two approaches have to a degree converged. Our notion of how grammatical systems vary and our ability to provide detailed, sophisticated analyses of this variation across a range of languages and grammatical phenomena is probably greater than it has been at any time in the past. Concentrating on principles-and-parameters theory, this new Routledge Major Work presents a general, detailed and critical overview of what has been achieved. Aside from the first and last volumes, each one is devoted to a particular aspect of grammatical variation which has been identified as underlying important differences among languages. The first volume presents some of the most important work prior to the formulation of the principles-and-parameters approach in approximately 1980, including Greenberg's seminal early paper on language typology, while the last volume, in addition to considering further aspects of variation, briefly illustrates how the principles-and-parameters approach has been applied to first-language acquisition and syntactic change. With comprehensive introductions to each volume, newly written by the editor, which place the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Comparative Grammar is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by linguistics scholars and students as a vital research resource.

What Teachers Need to Know About Language

What Teachers Need to Know About Language PDF

Author: Carolyn Temple Adger

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2018-07-10

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 1788920201

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Rising enrollments of students for whom English is not a first language mean that every teacher – whether teaching kindergarten or high school algebra – is a language teacher. This book explains what teachers need to know about language in order to be more effective in the classroom, and it shows how teacher education might help them gain that knowledge. It focuses especially on features of academic English and gives examples of the many aspects of teaching and learning to which language is key. This second edition reflects the now greatly expanded knowledge base about academic language and classroom discourse, and highlights the pivotal role that language plays in learning and schooling. The volume will be of interest to teachers, teacher educators, professional development specialists, administrators, and all those interested in helping to ensure student success in the classroom and beyond.

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