American English Grammar

This book introduces students to American English in detail, from parts-of-speech, phrases, clauses to punctuation, and explaining numerous "rules of correctness," integrating discussion of Standard American grammar with thorough coverage of the past sixty years' work on African American English and ethnic and regional non-Standard varieties.

*American English Grammar introduces students to American English in detail, from parts of speech, phrases, and clauses to punctuation and explaining (and debunking) numerous "rules of correctness," integrating its discussion of Standard American grammar with thorough coverage of the past sixty years' worth of work on African American English and other ethnic and regional non-Standard varieties. The book's examples and exercises include 500 real-world sentences and longer texts, drawn from newspapers, film, song lyrics, and online media as well as from Mark Twain, Stephen King, academic texts, translations of the Bible, poetry, drama, children's literature, and transcribed conversation and TV and radio shows. Based on twenty years of classroom testing and revision, American English Grammar* will serve as a classroom text or reference that teaches students how to think and talk not only about the mechanics of sentences but also about the deep and detailed soul and nuance of the most widely used language in human history.

"Notwithstanding the abundance of grammar books, we have a critical need for a unique text on American English that treats diversity as natural and is based on sentences and texts representing a full range of usesfrom well-known, expert writers to online media and song lyrics. This is such a text as it guides students to see the language soul beyond the structure of sentences." Walt Wolfram, North Carolina State University, USA. "I took Dr. Katz's grammar course while he was developing American English Grammar, and his training proved revolutionary for my teaching, my students, and my own personal understanding of grammar. Dr. Katz's common-sense approach to describing how language comes together, rather than the traditional defining of rules, has helped me give my students the freedom to explore language with joy and delight. Instead of requiring students to memorize lists and rules, AEG scaffolds the skills necessary to truly study the inner workings of our nuanced language." Erik Czerwin, English Language Arts teacher, Rockford, Illinois, USA. "I approach American English Grammar having had the benefit of learning from an earlier version of this textbook as an undergraduate. The foundation in analytical grammar that AEG provides equips the diligent student with the tools needed to understand not just what we write, but how and why we do so. The true strength of AEG is in its extensive examples and in how it encourages discussion and argumentation in classification. In my own educational career, while I was rarely called upon to diagram a sentence, I have often fallen back on the analytical training this text provides while in both the EFL and the college composition classroom." Christopher Douglas, Jacksonville State University, USA.

Autorentext

Seth R. Katz is Associate Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of English at Bradley University, USA.

Inhalt

Contents

Introduction

Language Variety and Grammar

The Point of the Book

A Summary of the Book

Key Points

A Guide to Non-Standard American Varieties

Acknowledgements

Credits

Abbreviations and Conventions

Introduction Notes

Chapter 1: Sentences; Parts of Speech and Their Phrases

1. Sentences: Subjects, Verbs, Verb Complements, and Sentence Modifiers

1.2 Parts of Speech and Their Phrases

Key Points

1.3 Exercises: Sentences

Chapter 1: Notes

Chapter 2: Nouns (N) and Noun Phrases (NP)

2.1 Noun Features

2.2 Noun Phrases

2.3 Noun Phrase Functions

Key Points

2.4 Exercises: Noun Phrases

Chapter 2 Notes

Chapter 3: Prepositions (P) and Prepositional Phrases (PP)

3.1 Prepositions: Form and Function

3.2 Prepositional Phrases: Form and Function

3.3 Prepositions and Language Variation

Key Points

3.4 Exercises: Prepositional Phrases

Chapter 3 Notes

Chapter 4: Adjectives (Adj) and Adjective Phrases (AdjP); Determiners (D) and Determiner Phrases (DP)

4.1 Adjective Forms

4.1.1 Adjective Phrases: Forms and Functions

4.2 Determiners (D) and Determiner Phrases (DP)

4.2.1 Determiner Forms

4.2.2 Determiner Phrases: Forms and Functions

4.3 What makes determiners different from adjectives? And why are number determiners?

Key Points

4.4 Exercises

Chapter 4 Notes

Chapter 5: Pronouns (ProN) and Pronoun Phrases (ProNP)

5.1 Pronoun Forms

5.2 Pronoun Attributes: Case, Number, Person, Gender, Animateness

5.3 Pronoun Functions

5.4 Identifying Pronouns

Key Points

5.5 Exercises: Pronouns

Chapter 5 Notes

Chapter 6: Verbs (V)

6.1 Verb Forms

6.1.1 Tense

6.1.2 Modality, Aspect, and Voice

6.1.2.1 Modality

6.1.2.2 Aspect

6.1.2.3 Voice

6.1.3 Tense, Modality, Aspect, Voice: Putting Them All Together

6.1.4 Imperative Mood

6.1.5 Subjunctive Mood

6.1.6 Auxiliary dó

6.1.7 *Generic Past Semi-auxiliary used to*

6.1.8 Non-Standard Absent be

6.1.9 How many bes are there?

6.2 Identifying Verbs

Key Points

6.3 Exercises: Verbs: Tense, Mood, Aspect, Voice

Chapter 6 Notes

Chapter 7: Verb Phrases (VP)

7.1 Verb Complements

7.1.1 Verbs with No Complements: Intransitive Verbs

7.1.2 Verbs with One Complement

7.1.2.1 Monotransitive Verbs

7.1.2.2 Intransitive Linking Verbs and Copular be with a Nominal or Adjectival Subject Complement

7.1.2.3 Intransitive Copular be with an Adverbial Subject Complement

7.1.2.4 Intransitive Verbs with an Adverbial Complement

7.1.2.5 Intransitive Quotative Verbs

7.1.3 Verbs with Two Complements

7.1.3.1 Ditransitive Verbs

7.1.3.2 Complex Transitive Verbs with a Direct Object and a Nominal or Adjectival Object Complement

7.1.3.3 Complex Transitive Verbs with a Direct Object and an Adverbial Object Complement

7.1.3.4 Complex Transitive Verbs with a Direct Object and a Participle Phrase

7.1.3.5 Complex Transitive Verbs with Direct Object and Infinitive Phrase

7.1.3.6 Transitive Quotative Verbs

7.1.4 Phrasal Verbs (PV)

7.1.4.1 Intransitive PVs

7.1.4.2 PVs with One Particle and One Complement

7.1.4.2.1 Transitive Separable PVs

7.1.4.2.2 Transitive Inseparable PVs

7.1.4.3 Transitive PV with a Second NP Verb Complement

7.1.4.4 Transitive PV with Two Inseparable Particles

7.1.4.5 Phrasal Verbs with Two Particles and Two Complements

7.1.4.5.1 Transitive PV with Two Separable Particles and a NP:VC

7.1.4.5.2 Transitive PV with Two Inseparable Particles and a NP:VC

7.2 Summary of Verb Complement and Phrasal Verb Patterns

Key Points

7.3 Exercises: Verb Complements and Phrasal Verbs

Chapter 7 Notes

Chapter 8: Adverbs (Adv) and Adverb Phrases (AdvP)

8.1 Adverb Phrases

8.2 Identifying Adverbs

8.3 Negation

Key Points

8.4 Exercises: Adverb Phrases

Chapter 8 Notes

Chapter 9: Conjunctions (Conj)

9.1 Coordinating Conjunctions

9.2 Conjoining Punctuation

9.2.1 Commas

9.2.2 An Aside about Semicolons

9.2.3 An Aside about Dashes, Hyphens, and Parentheses

9.2.4 A Further Aside on Hyphens

9.2.5 Hey: What about Colons?

9.2.6 One More Conjunctive Punctuation Mark You Don't Think About: Virgules

9.2.7 Summary of Conjoining Punctuation "Rules"

A Brief Discussion of Interjections

Key Points

9.3 Exercises: Conjunctions and Conjoining Punctuation

Chapter 9 Notes

Chapter 10: Clauses

10.1 Independent Clausesa.k.a. Sentences

10.1.1 Interrogative Sentences

10.1.2 Imperative Mood Sentences

10.1.3 Expletive there

10.1.4 Expletive it

10.1.5 Passive Voice

10.1.6 Inversion

10.2 Dependent Clauses

10.2.1 Adjective Clauses (AdjCl; a.k.a. Relative Clauses)

10.2.1.1 Relative Pro-words

10.2.2 Noun Clauses (NC…