English Grammar: A University Course

529 Pages·2015·12.03 MB·english

by  Angela Downing

ENGLISH GRAMMAR
This best-selling comprehensive descriptive grammar forms a complete course, ideal
for all students studying English Language, whether on a course or for self-study.
Broadly based on Hallidayan systemic-functional grammar but also drawing on cogni-
tive linguistics and discourse analysis, English Grammar is accessible, avoiding overly
theoretical or technical explanations.
The book consists of twelve self-contained chapters built around language functions,
and each chapter is divided into units of class-length material. Key features include:
• Numerous authentic texts from a wide range of sources, both spoken and written,
which exemplify the grammatical description;
• Clear chapter and unit summaries which enable efficient class preparation and
student revision;
• Extensive exercises with a comprehensive answer key.
This new edition has been thoroughly updated with new texts, a more user-friendly
layout, more American English examples and a companion website, providing extra
tasks, a glossary and a teachers’ guide.
This is the essential coursebook and reference work for all native and non-native
students of English grammar on English language and linguistics courses.
Angela Downing is Professor Emeritus at Universidad Complutense de Madrid,
Spain. She was General Editor of Atlantis (Journal of the Spanish Association of English
and American Studies) from 2006 to 2012 and has published numerous articles on gram-
mar and discourse.
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ENGLISH GRAMMAR
A university course
Third edition
Angela Downing
Third edition published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Angela Downing
The right of Angela Downing to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
First published 1992 by Prentice Hall International (UK) Ltd
Routledge edition first published 2002
Second edition published 2006 by Routledge
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Downing, Angela.
English grammar: a university course/Angela Downing.—Third edition.
p. cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. English language—Grammar. 2. English language—Grammar—Problems, exercises, etc.
3. English language—Textbooks for foreign speakers. I. Title.
PE1112.D68 2015
428.2—dc23
2014024429
ISBN: 978-0-415-73267-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-73268-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-75004-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Amasis
by Swales and Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
CONTENTS
List of figures ix
Preface to the third edition xi
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction to the third edition xiv
Table of notational symbols xviii
1 Basic concepts 1
Unit 1 Language and meaning 3
Unit 2 Linguistic forms and syntactic functions 9
Unit 3 Negation and expansion 21
Exercises 28
2 The skeleton of the message: introduction to
clause structure 31
Unit 4 Syntactic elements and structures of the clause 33
Unit 5 Subject and Predicator 40
Unit 6 Direct, Indirect and Prepositional Objects 47
Unit 7 Subject and Object Complements 60
Unit 8 Adjuncts 65
Further reading 72
Exercises 72
3 The development of the message: complementation
of the verb 77
Introduction: Major complementation patterns and valency 79
Unit 9 Intransitive and copular patterns 81
Unit10 Transitive patterns 85
Unit 11 Complementation by finite clauses 94
Unit 12 Complementation by non-finite clauses 101
Summary of major verb complementation patterns 107
Further reading 108
Exercises 108
vi ENGLISH GRAMMAR
4 Interaction between speaker and hearer: linking
speech acts and grammar 111
Unit 13 Speech acts and clause types 113
Unit 14 The declarative and interrogative clause types 117
Unit 15 The exclamative and imperative clause types 126
Unit 16 Indirect speech acts, clause types and discourse functions 133
Unit 17 Questions, clause types and discourse functions 137
Unit 18 Directives: getting people to carry out actions 141
Further reading 148
Exercises 149
5 Conceptualising patterns of experience: processes,
participants, circumstances 153
Unit 19 Conceptualising experiences expressed as situation types 155
Unit 20 Material processes of doing and happening 160
Unit 21 Causative processes 164
Unit 22 Processes of transfer 169
Unit 23 Conceptualising what we think, perceive and feel 171
Unit 24 Relational processes of being and becoming 176
Unit 25 Processes of saying, behaving and existing 182
Unit 26 Expressing attendant circumstances 186
Unit 27 Conceptualising experiences from a different angle:
Nominalisation and grammatical metaphor 190
Further reading 197
Exercises 197
6 Organising the message: thematic and information
structures of the clause 203
Unit 28 Theme: the point of departure of the message 205
Unit 29 The distribution and focus of information 220
Unit 30 The interplay of Theme–Rheme and Given–New 227
Further reading 242
Exercises 243
7 Combining clauses into sentences 247
Unit 31 Clause combining: the complex sentence 249
Unit 32 Relationships of equivalence between clauses 253
Unit 33 Relationships of non-equivalence between clauses 258
Unit 34 Subordination and subordinators 261
Unit 35 Discourse functions of conjunctions 267
Unit 36 Reporting speech and thought 271
Further reading 279
Exercises 280
CONTENTS vii
8 Talking about events: the Verbal Group 285
Unit 37 Expressing our experience of events 287
Unit 38 Basic structures of the Verbal Group 293
Unit 39 Organising our experience of events 300
Unit 40 The semantics of phrasal verbs 303
Further reading 310
Exercises 311
9 Viewpoints on events: tense, aspect and modality 315
Unit 41 Expressing location in time through the verb: tense 317
Unit 42 Past events and present time connected: Present Perfect
and Past Perfect 326
Unit 43 Situation types and the Progressive aspect 334
Unit 44 Expressing attitudes towards the event: modality 343
Further reading 355
Exercises 356
10 Talking about people and things: the Nominal Group 359
Unit 45 Expressing our experience of people and things 361
Unit 46 Referring to people and things as definite, indefinite, generic 375
Unit 47 Selecting and particularising the referent: the determiner 381
Unit 48 Describing and classifying the referent: the pre-modifier 392
Unit 49 Identifying and elaborating the referent: the post-modifier 401
Unit 50 Noun complement clauses 410
Further reading 414
Exercises 414
11 Describing persons, things and circumstances:
adjectival and adverbial groups 419
Unit 51 Adjectives and the adjectival group 421
Unit 52 Degrees of comparison and intensification 428
Unit 53 Complementation of the adjective 437
Unit 54 Adverbs and the adverbial group 443
Unit 55 Syntactic functions of adverbs and adverbial groups 448
Unit 56 Modification and complementation in the adverbial group 455
Further reading 459
Exercises 459
12 Spatial, temporal and other relationships: the
Prepositional Phrase 465
Unit 57 Prepositions and the Prepositional Phrase 467
Unit 58 Syntactic functions of the Prepositional Phrase 475
viii ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Unit 59 Semantic features of the Prepositional Phrase 479
Further reading 487
Exercises 487
Answer Key 491
Select Bibliography 509
Index 513
FIGURES
1.1 Participant, process and circumstances 5
1.2 Semantic roles 5
1.3 Order of syntactic elements in the declarative clause 6
1.4 Order of syntactic elements in the interrogative clause 6
1.5 Theme-Rheme order 7
1.6 Combining the three structures 7
1.7 Units on the rank scale 11
1.8 Components and realisations 19
2.1 Subject and Predicator 34
2.2 Object (O) and Complement (C) 34
2.3 Direct Object (Od) and Indirect Object (Oi) 35
2.4 Complement types 35
2.5 Anticipatory ‘it’ as stand-in for displaced Subject 44
2.6 Anticipatory ‘it’ as Object + clause as Object 49
2.7 Recipient as Indirect Object and Beneficiary as Indirect Object 51
2.8 Recipient as Subject and Beneficiary as Subject 52
2.9.1 Multi-word verb and Object 58
2.9.2 Verb and PP as Adjunct or Comp 58
2.10 Manner of movement – Extent – Path – Goal – Purpose 68
3.1 Main clause and embedded nominal wh-clause 95
4.1 Clause types or moods 114
4.2 Correspondence between clause types and speech acts 114
4.3 Clause types and the ordering of the subject and finite 118
4.4 Imperative and declarative 129
4.5 Negative and emphasis 130
4.6 Let’s and Let us 131
4.7 Clause types and illocutionary force 147
5.1 The circumstantial role 157
5.2 Agentive Subject of a voluntary process of ‘doing’ 161
5.3 Affected participant in a voluntary process of ‘doing’ 161
5.4 Affected Subject in a passive clause 161
5.5 Force 162
5.6 Involuntary processes of ‘happening’ 163
5.7 Transitive-causative structure 164