Grammar of spoken and written English

Author/Creator:

Biber, Douglas, author

Publication/Creation:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins Publishing Company, [2021]

Format:

Book

More Details

Additional/Related Title Information

Full Title:

Grammar of spoken and written English / Douglas Biber, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey N. Leech, Susan Conrad, Edward Finegan

Related Names

Additional Author/Creators:

Johansson, Stig, 1939-, author
Leech, Geoffrey N., author
Conrad, Susan, author
Finegan, Edward, 1940-, author

Subjects/Genre

Subjects:

English language--Grammar

Description/Summary

Table of Contents:

Intro -- Grammar of Spoken and Written English -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Table of contents -- Abbreviations and symbols -- Preface -- Symbols and notational conventions -- Section A: Introductory -- Chapter 1. Introduction -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.1.1 Major goals of the LGSWE -- 1.2 Structure and use in English grammar -- 1.2.1 Register distribution -- 1.2.2 Lexico-grammatical patterns -- 1.2.3 Grammatical/discourse factors -- 1.3 Varieties of English -- 1.3.1 Registers of English -- 1.3.2 Dialect distinctions -- 1.3.3 Standard and non-standard English -- 1.3.3.1 Variation within standard English -- 1.3.3.2 Variation within non-standard English -- 1.3.4 The relative importance of register and dialect differences -- 1.4 Representation of varieties in the LSWE Corpus -- 1.4.1 Register distinctions in the LSWE Corpus -- 1.4.2 Dialect distinctions in the LSWE Corpus -- 1.4.3 Size of the LSWE Corpus -- 1.4.4 Representativeness and accuracy of the LSWE Corpus -- 1.5 Description of the register categories in the LSWE Corpus -- 1.5.1 Conversation -- 1.5.2 Fiction -- 1.5.3 News -- 1.5.4 Academic prose -- 1.5.5 Supplementary registers -- 1.6 Grammatical analysis of the LSWE Corpus -- 1.7 Quantitative findings in the grammar -- 1.8 Functional interpretation of quantitative findings -- 1.8.1 Function as the performance of tasks -- 1.8.2 Function as a reflection of processing constraints -- 1.8.3 Function as social or situational indexing -- 1.8.4 Other explanatory considerations -- 1.9 Overview of the grammar -- 1.10 Potential users and uses of the LGSWE -- Section B: Basic grammar: Description and distribution -- Chapter 2. Word and phrase grammar -- 2.1 The nature of grammatical units -- 2.2 Words and their characteristics -- 2.2.1 Word types and word tokens -- 2.2.1.1 Use of words in text examples -- 2.2.1.2 TTR across the registers.
2.2.2 Orthographic words, grammatical words, and lexemes -- 2.2.3 The three major word classes -- 2.2.3.1 Lexical words -- 2.2.3.2 Function words -- 2.2.3.3 Inserts -- 2.2.4 Closed systems v. open classes -- 2.2.5 The structure of words: Morphology -- 2.2.5.1 Inflection -- 2.2.5.2 Derivation -- 2.2.5.3 Compounding -- 2.2.5.4 Multi-word lexical units -- 2.2.6 Core v. peripheral members of word classes -- 2.2.7 Multiple class membership -- 2.2.8 Use of lexical words, function words, and inserts -- 2.2.9 Lexical density -- 2.3 Survey of lexical words -- 2.3.1 Nouns -- 2.3.2 Lexical verbs -- 2.3.3 Adjectives -- 2.3.4 Adverbs -- 2.3.5 Lexical word classes -- 2.3.6 Borderline cases of lexical word class membership -- 2.4 Survey of function words -- 2.4.1 Determiners -- 2.4.2 Pronouns -- 2.4.2.1 Overlap of pronoun, determiner, and adverb classes -- 2.4.2.2 Other pro-forms -- 2.4.3 Primary auxiliaries -- 2.4.4 Modal auxiliaries -- 2.4.5 Prepositions -- 2.4.5.1 Free v. bound prepositions -- 2.4.5.2 Complex prepositions -- 2.4.5.3 Overlap between prepositions and other word classes -- 2.4.6 Adverbial particles -- 2.4.6.1 Adverbial particles v. adverbs -- 2.4.6.2 Adverbial particles v. prepositions -- 2.4.7 Coordinators -- 2.4.7.1 Correlative coordinators -- 2.4.7.2 Coordinators v. other word classes -- 2.4.7.3 Simple coordinators: Distribution -- 2.4.7.4 Sentence/turn-initial coordinators -- 2.4.7.5 Correlative coordinators: Distribution -- 2.4.8 Subordinators -- 2.4.8.1 Complex subordinators -- 2.4.8.2 Correlative subordinators -- 2.4.8.3 Overlap between subordinators and other word classes -- 2.4.9 Wh-words -- 2.4.10 Existential there -- 2.4.11 The negator not -- 2.4.12 The infinitive marker to -- 2.4.13 Numerals -- 2.4.13.1 Cardinals -- 2.4.13.2 Ordinals -- 2.4.13.3 Numerals: Distribution -- 2.4.14 Major function word classes: Distribution.
2.5 Survey of inserts -- 2.6 Phrases and their characteristics -- 2.6.1 Constituency -- 2.6.2 Form v. syntactic role of phrases -- 2.6.3 Phrases in text samples -- 2.7 Types of phrase -- 2.7.1 Noun phrases -- 2.7.1.1 The syntactic roles of noun phrases -- 2.7.1.2 Discontinuous noun phrases -- 2.7.2 Verb phrases -- 2.7.2.1 The syntactic role of verb phrases -- 2.7.2.2 Discontinuous verb phrases -- 2.7.2.3 Auxiliary-only verb phrases -- 2.7.3 Adjective phrases -- 2.7.3.1 The syntactic roles of adjective phrases -- 2.7.3.2 Discontinuous adjective phrases -- 2.7.4 Adverb phrases -- 2.7.4.1 The syntactic roles of adverb phrases -- 2.7.5 Prepositional phrases -- 2.7.5.1 Extended prepositional phrases -- 2.7.5.2 The syntactic roles of prepositional phrases -- 2.7.5.3 Stranded prepositions -- 2.7.5.4 Stranded prepositions in independent wh-questions -- 2.7.6 Genitive phrases -- 2.7.7 Numeral phrases -- 2.7.7.1 Complex numbers -- 2.7.7.2 Types of numerical expressions -- 2.7.7.3 Approximate numbers -- 2.7.7.4 Approximating numeral expressions -- 2.8 Embedding of phrases -- 2.9 Coordination of phrases -- 2.9.1 Phrasal v. clausal coordination -- 2.9.2 Coordination tags -- 2.9.2.1 Distribution of coordination tags -- 2.10 Simple v. complex phrases -- Chapter 3. Clause grammar -- 3.1 Clause v. non-clausal material -- 3.1.1 Use of clauses v. non-clausal material in text samples -- 3.2 Major clause elements -- 3.2.1 Subject (S) -- 3.2.1.1 Semantic roles of subjects -- 3.2.1.2 Dummy subjects -- 3.2.1.3 Subjects in non-finite clauses -- 3.2.2 Verb phrase (V) -- 3.2.3 Subject predicative (PS) -- 3.2.4 Direct object (Od) -- 3.2.4.1 Semantic roles of direct objects -- 3.2.4.2 Dummy objects -- 3.2.5 Indirect object (Oi -- 3.2.6 Prepositional object (Op) -- 3.2.7 Object predicative (PO) -- 3.2.8 Adverbials (A) -- 3.2.8.1 Circumstance adverbials (AC).
3.2.8.2 Stance adverbials (AS) -- 3.2.8.3 Linking adverbials (AI) -- 3.2.9 The operator -- 3.3 Clause links -- 3.4 Peripheral elements -- 3.4.1 Detached predicatives and related forms -- 3.4.2 Parentheticals -- 3.4.3 Prefaces -- 3.4.4 Tags -- 3.4.5 Discourse markers -- 3.4.6 Vocatives -- 3.5 Major clause patterns -- 3.5.1 Subject - verb phrase -- 3.5.2 Subject - verb phrase - obligatory adverbial -- 3.5.3 Subject - verb phrase - subject predicative -- 3.5.3.1 The characterizing pattern -- 3.5.3.2 The identifying pattern -- 3.5.4 Subject - verb phrase - direct object -- 3.5.5 Subject - verb phrase - prepositional object -- 3.5.6 Subject - verb phrase - indirect object - direct object -- 3.5.7 Subject - verb phrase - direct object - prepositional object -- 3.5.8 Subject - verb phrase - direct object - object predicative -- 3.5.9 Subject - verb phrase - direct object - obligatory adverbial -- 3.5.10 More complex patterns -- 3.6 Variations on clause patterns -- 3.6.1 Order variations -- 3.6.1.1 Inversion -- 3.6.1.2 Fronting -- 3.6.1.3 Postponement -- 3.6.2 The passive -- 3.6.3 Existential there -- 3.6.4 Extraposition -- 3.6.5 Clefting -- 3.6.6 Condensation -- 3.7 Ellipsis -- 3.7.1 Ellipsis in coordinated clauses -- 3.7.2 Ellipsis in comparative clauses -- 3.7.3 Ellipsis in question-answer sequences -- 3.7.4 Other types of textual ellipsis -- 3.7.5 Omission of function words and situational ellipsis -- 3.8 Negation -- 3.8.1 Overall frequency of negation -- 3.8.2 Not-negation -- 3.8.2.1 The auxiliary do in negative clauses with transitive have (got) -- 3.8.2.2 The auxiliary do in negative clauses with the semi-modal have to -- 3.8.2.3 The auxiliary do in negative clauses with dare and need -- 3.8.2.4 The auxiliary do in negative clauses with ought to and used to -- 3.8.2.5 Full form v. operator contraction v. not-contraction -- 3.8.2.6 Aren't I and ain't.
3.8.3 No-negation -- 3.8.4 Occurrence of not-negation v. no-negation -- 3.8.4.1 Variability of not-negation and no-negation -- 3.8.4.2 Relative frequency of not-negation v. no-negation -- 3.8.4.3 Choice of no-negation v. not-negation -- 3.8.4.4 Not-negation collocations -- 3.8.5 The scope of negation -- 3.8.6 Assertive and non-assertive forms -- 3.8.7 Multiple negation -- 3.8.7.1 Dependent multiple negation -- 3.8.7.2 Independent multiple negation -- 3.9 Subject-verb concord -- 3.9.1 Complications with concord patterns -- 3.9.1.1 Concord with plural forms not ending in -s -- 3.9.1.2 Concord with singular forms ending in -s -- 3.9.1.3 Concord with coordinated subjects -- 3.9.1.4 Concord with indefinite pronouns and quantifying expressions -- 3.9.1.5 Concord with existential there -- 3.9.1.6 Concord with clausal subjects -- 3.9.2 Notional concord -- 3.9.2.1 Concord with names, titles, and quotations -- 3.9.2.2 Concord with measure expressions -- 3.9.2.3 Concord with collective nouns -- 3.9.3 Concord and proximity -- 3.9.4 Non-standard concord in conversation -- 3.9.5 Subject-verb concord and pronominal reference -- 3.10 Types of dependent clauses -- 3.11 Finite dependent clauses -- 3.11.1 Nominal clauses -- 3.11.2 Adverbial clauses -- 3.11.3 Relative clauses -- 3.11.4 Comparative clauses and other degree clauses -- 3.11.5 Reporting clauses -- 3.11.6 Comment clauses -- 3.11.7 Other peripheral clauses -- 3.12 Non-finite clauses -- 3.12.1 Infinitive clauses -- 3.12.2 Ing-clauses -- 3.12.3 Ed-clauses -- 3.12.4 Supplementive clauses -- 3.12.5 Verbless clauses -- 3.13 Major types of independent clauses -- 3.13.1 Declarative clauses -- 3.13.2 Interrogative clauses -- 3.13.2.1 Wh-questions -- 3.13.2.2 Yes/no-questions -- 3.13.2.3 Alternative questions -- 3.13.2.4 Question tags -- 3.13.2.5 Interrogatives in general: Distribution.
3.13.2.6 Question types: Distribution.

Summary:

"The completely redesigned Grammar of Spoken and Written English is a comprehensive corpus-based reference grammar. GSWE describes the structural characteristics of grammatical constructions in English, as do other reference grammars. But GSWE is unique in that it gives equal attention to describing the patterns of language use for each grammatical feature, based on empirical analyses of grammatical patterns in a 40-million-word corpus of spoken and written registers. Grammar-in-use is characterized by three inter-related kinds of information: frequency of grammatical features in spoken and written registers, frequencies of the most common lexico-grammatical patterns, and analysis of the discourse factors influencing choices among related grammatical features. GSWE includes over 350 tables and figures highlighting the results of corpus-based investigations. Throughout the book, authentic examples illustrate all research findings. The empirical descriptions document the lexico-grammatical features that are especially common in face-to-face-conversation compared to those that are especially common in academic writing. Analyses of fiction and newspaper articles are included as further benchmarks of language use. GSWE contains over 6,000 authentic examples from these four registers, illustrating the range of lexico-grammatical features in real-world speech and writing. In addition, comparisons between British and American English reveal specific regional differences. Now completely redesigned and available in an electronic edition, the Grammar of Spoken and Written English remains a unique and indispensable reference work for researchers, language teachers, and students alike"--

Language:

English

Physical Type/Description:

1 online resource (xxxv, 1220 pages)

Additional Identifiers

Catalog ID (MMSID):

9937760491102486

OCLC Number:

1251737213

Other Identifiers:

doi: 10.1075/z.232