Table Of Content

ENGLISH GRAMMAR Volume I ENGLISH GRAMMAR A FUNCTION-BASED INTRODUCTION Volume I T. GIVÓN Linguistics Department University of Oregon JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA 1993 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Givón, Talmy, 1936- English grammar : a function-based introduction / T. Givón. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. 1. English language-Grammar. I. Title. PE1106.G57 1993 428.2--dc20 93-18295 ISBN 1-55619-459-5 (set hb)/1-55619-466-8 (set pb) (US alk. paper) CIP 1-55619-457-9 (hb vol. 1)/1-55619-464-1 (pb vol.1) (US alk. paper) 1-55619-458-7 (hb vol.2)/l-55619-465-X (pb vol.2) (US) alk. paper) ISBN 90 272 2100 6 (set hb)/90 272 2117 0 (set pb) (Eur alk. paper) 90 272 2098 0 (hb vol.1)/90 272 2115 4 (pb vol.1) (Eur alk. paper) 90 272 2099 9 (hb vol.2)/90 272 2116 2 (pb vol.2) (Eur alk. paper) © Copyright 1993 - T. Givón. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 75577 · 1070 AN Amsterdam · The Netherlands John Benjamins North America · 821 Bethlehem Pike · Philadelphia, PA 19118 · USA The author with Prof. Bolinger, Christmas 1987 IN MEMORIAM Dwight Bolinger, generous teacher, thoughtful friend, lover of language. CONTENTS Foreword xix 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Grammar and communication 1 1.1.1. Structure vs. function 1 1.1.2. Arbitrary vs. motivated rules of grammar 2 1.1.3. Rules of grammar vs. communicative strategies 3 1.1.4. Cross-language diversity of grammatical strategies 4 1.2. Whose grammar? 5 1.2.1. Prescriptive vs. descriptive grammars 5 1.2.2. Historic time 8 1.2.3. Age: The grammar of youth 9 1.2.4. Spoken vs. written language 13 1.2.5. Educated vs. uneducated grammar 15 1.2.6. Formal vs. informal grammar 17 1.2.7. Grammar and social status 17 1.2.8. Grammar and ethnic minorities 18 1.2.9. Geographical dialects 19 1.2.10. Grammar and foreign talk 19 1.2.11. Grammar and individual style 20 1.3. Grammar for communication 21 1.3.1. Major functions of language 21 1.3.2. Words, clauses, discourse 21 1.3.3. Grammar as a communicative code 25 1.3.3.1. Joint coding 25 1.3.3.2. Coding devices in syntax 26 1.4. Theme and variation in syntactic description 27 1.5. Parsing: tree diagrams 28 1.6. Deep structure, surface structure and meaning 30 Notes 37