This is a practical handbook covering an area of grammar which up to now has not received systematic attention in textbooks for teachers and students of English: the structure of clauses and sentences and how these are built up and linked together. On the basis of an extensive analysis of students' writing, the author provides a classification of the most common structural mistakes and ambiguities which result from an inadequate grasp of how the elements of a sentence fit together. The source of each type of error is explained and extensive and varied exercise material on the problem areas is provided. The sentences used in the text are authetic examples taken from textbooks and newspapers or from the written work of students themselves.This handbook will be useful not only for non-native-speaking learners but also for native-speaking students and teachers of English, who will find it a helpful starting text on syntax at sentence level. Since answers to the exercises are provided, the book may be used both in the classroom and for self-study purposes.

An Introduction to English Sentence Structure puts the study of English sentences into the meaningful perspective provided by the broad essentials of functionalism. The book starts from the premise that the structure of language reflects the structure of events in everyday experience. By contrast, grammars that are more structural in nature often begin with gross facts about language structure, such as the observation that clauses can be divided into subjects and predicates. The book's premise reflects the fundamental Hallidayan principle that language simultaneously codes for three dimensions of structure: clause as representation, clause as exchange, and clause as message. This approach has the effect of situating the study of language in the student's familiar world of ideas, relationships, and discourses. The book blends insights from three prominent modern schools of grammatical thought (functionalism, structuralism, and generativism) using functionalism as the philosophical and organizational motif. The book focuses on the representational function of language, encouraging students to use their knowledge of the way the world works in order to understand how language works. The approach taken is hybrid: It assumes that form matters, and in this sense it is structural. It also assumes that forms follows function, and in this sense it is functional. As its subtitle suggests, the book is concerned with the argument structure of clauses, the boundary markers of clause combinations, and the syntactic and experiential resources that permit language users to supply the content of empty categories, which are the missing elements.

This book "is a 10-week course for student sof English language and literature, linguistics or other related language studies. The course and the practice program on CD-ROM provide all the background information and practice facilities you need to become proficient in sentence analysis at sentence, clause and phrase level, making you familiar with the terms and concepts of English syntax." - back cover.

No detailed description available for "Syntactic Structures".

A readable introduction to English syntax and syntactic theory, argumentation and description, suitable for students with little prior knowledge.