Making Sense of Grammar

Description

The best-selling grammar reference, Rediscover Grammar, now has a sequel – Making Sense of Grammar. In this engaging new book, David Crystal moves the analysis of grammatical structure on to the next stage – interpreting it from a semantic and pragmatic point of view. Using the framework he used in Rediscover Grammar, he develops our understanding of grammar and then shows how it works in different language contexts – literary and non-literary, spoken and written. The range of contexts is unprecedented and the results are compelling. David Crystal explores a wide range of linguistic themes, introducing perspectives from sociolinguistics, language acquisition, and stylistics. He also gives guidance on how people can put their knowledge of grammar into daily practice, both when using language themselves and when interpreting the usage of others. Making Sense of Grammar is the ideal companion to Rediscover Grammar – bridging the gap between language structure and language in use. Front cover Title page Contents Introduction Theory into practice Grammar and vocabulary Sentences 1 The sentence 2 Types of sentence 3 Clause elements 4 Clause types 5 Statements and questions 6 Directives 7 Exclamations and echoes Clauses 8 The verb element 9 The subject element 10 The object element 11 The complement element 12 The adverbial element 13 Vocatives 14 Concord The verb phrase 15 Verb phrase structure 16 Regular and irregular verbs 17 Finite and nonfinite 18 Auxiliary verbs 19 Other verbs 20 Multi-word verbs 21 The moods of the verbs phrase 22 Active and passive 23 Verb tenses 24 Verb aspects 25 Future time 26 Modal meanings The noun phrase 27 Noun phrase structure 28 Nouns 29 Common and proper nouns 30 Count and noncount nouns 31 Variable nouns: singular and plural 32 Invariable nouns 33 Gender 34 Case 35 Determiners 36 The articles 37 Predeterminers 38 Postdeterminers 39 Premodification 40 Postmodification 41 Relative clauses 42 Noun phrases in apposition Pronouns 43 Pronouns 44 Types of pronouns 45 Personal pronouns 46 Pronoun case 47 Pronoun gender Adjectives 48 Adjectives 49 The functions of the adjective 50 Adjectives and other word classes 51 Adjective comparison Adverbs and adverbials 52 Adverbs 53 Adverbial positions 54 The meanings of adverbials 55 Adjuncts 56 Subjuncts 57 Disjuncts 58 Conjuncts Prepositions 59 Prepositions 60 Simple and complex prepositions 61 Prepositional meanings Reducing and expanding sentences 62 Abbreviating the sentence 63 Multiple sentences 64 Coordination 65 Subordination 66 Subordination: meanings 67 Comment clauses 68 Comparative clauses 69 Reporting speech The information structure of the sentence 70 Sentence information 71 Varying the information structure 72 Existential sentences Above the sentence 73 Sentence connection Related issues 74 Word-information 75 Prosody 76 Punctuation Index Further reading Copyright page Back cover