Doing Grammar

by Morenberg, Max

• ISBN13: 9780195097832
• ISBN10: 0195097831
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-02-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The new edition of this innovative text employs insights from contemporary linguistic theories but builds them into a practical and coherent system that stays firmly rooted within traditional models. Its down-to-earth explanations about how language works are illustrated at every step with diagrams and other visual models. The examples and exercises consist of provocative and intelligent sentences, not desiccated grammar-book examples. Each chapter includes a sentence-analysis exercise with fifty problems. Answers are provided for ten sentences per chapter. A new chapter on how grammar functions in literature and how it is used to improve writing extends the applications of Doing Grammar in this second edition, which also includes new introductory chapter outlines and thoroughly revised chapter summaries. The new edition was class tested for over a year. Every page has been re-thought and redefined to make grammatical analysis clear, understandable, useful, and interesting. It will be an invaluable guide for students in introductory and advanced grammar and composition courses and for all readers seeking to discover how language works.

Author Biography

Max Morenberg is Professor of English at Miami University

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Identifying Verb Types	1	(22)
Preview	1	(1)
What Is Grammar?	2	(2)
The Implications of How We Define Grammar	4	(1)
Verbs Are Central to Sentence Structure	5	(1)
Intransitive Verbs	6	(1)
Linking Verbs	7	(1)
Transitive Verbs	8	(1)
Two-Place Transitive Verbs	9	(1)
Two-Place Transitives: Vg Verbs	9	(3)
Two-Place Transitives: Vc Verbs	12	(1)
The Verb Be	13	(1)
Summary of Verb Types	14	(1)
Verbs and Slots and Nuclei	15	(1)
Verbs Can Change Categories	15	(1)
More Patterns and Some References	16	(2)
Summary	18	(5)
Writing Definitions	20	(1)
Identifying Verb Types	20	(3)
Analyzing Sentences	23	(23)
Preview	23	(1)
Two Main Sentence Parts	24	(1)
Finding Subjects and Predicates	24	(3)
Constituents and the Colonel	27	(3)
Hierarchies	30	(1)
Diagraming and a Ride on the Author's Hobbyhorse	31	(3)
Prepositional Phrases	34	(1)
Adverbs Explained, Sort Of	35	(3)
Multiple-Word Verbs	38	(3)
Summary	41	(5)
Writing Definitions	42	(1)
Identifying Sentence Constituents	43	(3)
Expanding Verb Phrases	46	(23)
Preview	46	(1)
Verb Status	47	(1)
Tense	48	(2)
Tense and the Predicate	50	(1)
Mood, a Brief Definition	51	(1)
Modal Auxiliaries and Conditional Mood	51	(1)
Modal Auxiliaries	51	(2)
Conditional Mood and Future Time	53	(1)
What Happened to Future Tense?	54	(1)
Aspect	55	(1)
Perfect Aspect	55	(2)
Past Participles	57	(1)
Progressive Aspect	58	(2)
Differentiating Participles from Adjectives	60	(1)
Putting Tense, Modality, and Aspect Together	60	(2)
Principal Parts of Verbs	62	(2)
Summary	64	(5)
Writing Definitions	65	(1)
Changing Main-Verb Forms	66	(1)
Identifying Verb Status and Analyzing Sentences	66	(3)
Exploring Noun Phrases	69	(20)
Preview	69	(1)
Types of Nouns	69	(1)
Proper or Common	70	(1)
Determiners	70	(1)
The Difference between Determiners and Adjectives	71	(1)
Articles	72	(1)
Demonstratives	73	(1)
Possessive Pronouns	74	(1)
Numbers	74	(1)
Pre-articles	75	(4)
Post-noun Modifiers	79	(1)
Genitive Nouns (a.k.a. Possessive Nouns)	79	(3)
Other Types of Pronouns	82	(1)
Personal Pronouns	83	(1)
Reflective Pronouns	83	(1)
Indefinite Pronouns	84	(1)
Summary	84	(5)
Writing Definitions	85	(1)
Identifying Noun Constituents and Analyzing Sentences	85	(4)
Rearranging and Compounding	89	(41)
Preview	90	(1)
Rearranging	90	(1)
Negative Sentences	91	(6)
Questions	97	(1)
Yes/No Questions	97	(1)
Wh-Questions	98	(5)
Passive Sentences	103	(3)
The Structure of Passives	106	(2)
Deleting By Phrases	108	(1)
Where Have All the Constituents Gone?	108	(2)
Adjectives or Past Participles?	110	(1)
Passives with Get	110	(1)
Negatives and Questions in Passives	111	(1)
MV Status in Passives	111	(1)
Sentences with There	112	(1)
Expletives	113	(2)
Imperative Sentences	115	(1)
Understood You in Imperative Sentences	115	(1)
Diagraming Imperatives	116	(1)
The Status of Imperatives	116	(1)
Imperatives and Negatives	117	(1)
Compounding	117	(3)
Conjunctions	120	(1)
Punctuating Compounds	120	(3)
Conjunctive Adverbs	123	(1)
Summary	124	(6)
Writing Definitions	125	(1)
Rearranging and Compounding Sentences	125	(1)
Analyzing Sentences	126	(4)
Constructing Relative Clauses	130	(25)
Preview	130	(1)
Clauses	131	(1)
Why Do You Combine Clauses?	131	(1)
Relative Clauses	132	(1)
The Structure and Function of Relative Clauses	132	(1)
Where Relative Clauses Are Embedded	132	(1)
The Structure of Relative Clauses: The Way It Was	133	(3)
The Relation of a Relative Clause to Its Matrix Clause	136	(2)
Constructing Relative Clauses	138	(3)
Relatives	141	(1)
Choosing a Relative Pronoun	141	(3)
Fronted Relatives and Functions	144	(2)
Deleting Object Noun Phrases	146	(1)
Embedding Relative Clauses into Dependent Clauses	147	(1)
Restrictive Clauses	148	(1)
Summary	148	(1)
Clauses	148	(1)
Relative Clauses	148	(1)
Grammar as a Discrete Combinatorial System	149	(1)
Hierarchy as Underlying Design	149	(6)
Writing Definitions	149	(1)
Combining Sentences	149	(1)
Breaking out Underlying Sentence	150	(1)
Analyzing Sentences	151	(4)
Reducing Relative Clauses to Phrases	155	(26)
Preview	155	(1)
Reducing Relative Clauses	155	(1)
Present Participial Phrases	156	(3)
Past Participial Phrases	159	(2)
Prepositional Phrases	161	(3)
Constituency within Embedded Phrases	164	(1)
Single-Word Participles, Adverbs, and Adjectives	165	(2)
Restrictive Phrases	167	(1)
Parsing, Onion Peeling, and ``Thermogrammatics'': Some Irreverent Thoughts	167	(6)
Problems Identifying Constituents	173	(1)
Summary	174	(7)
Writing Definitions	175	(1)
Breaking Out Underlying Sentences	175	(1)
Combining Sentences	175	(1)
Analyzing Sentences	176	(5)
Making Noun Clauses, Gerunds, and Infinitives	181	(31)
Preview	181	(1)
That-Clauses	182	(3)
Distinguishing Noun Clauses from Relative Clauses	185	(1)
Moving That-Clauses	186	(1)
Wh-Clauses	187	(8)
Infinitives That Function as Nouns	195	(2)
Words That Introduce Infinitives	197	(3)
Infinitives That Function as Adverbs	200	(1)
Gerunds	200	(4)
Putting Structures and Processes Together	204	(1)
Summary	205	(7)
Writing Definitions	205	(1)
Breaking Out Underlying Sentences	206	(1)
Combining Sentences	206	(1)
Analyzing Sentences	207	(5)
Adding Modifiers to Sentences	212	(29)
Preview	212	(1)
Nonrestrictive Modifiers	213	(1)
Nonrestrictive Relative Clauses	214	(4)
Participial Phrases	218	(1)
Appositive Nouns and Adjectives	219	(1)
Appositive Noun Phrases	219	(3)
Appositive Adjective Phrases	222	(1)
Absolute Phrases	223	(4)
Adverb Clauses	227	(4)
Putting Sentence Modifiers Together	231	(1)
A Final Word on Taking Sentences Apart	232	(1)
Summary and Implications	233	(8)
Writing Definitions	234	(1)
Breaking Out Underlying Sentences	234	(1)
Combining Sentences	235	(1)
Analyzing Sentences	236	(5)
What Can You do Now that You Can do Grammar? The Rhetoric of Sentences	241	(21)
Preview	241	(2)
Reflecting on Literature: Style and Meaning	243	(5)
Getting Rid of Gibberish	248	(3)
Constructing Effective Sentences	251	(3)
Using Punctuation to Improve Sentence Effectiveness	254	(6)
Summary and Implications	260	(2)
Exercises	260	(2)
Appendix Selected Answers	262	(26)
Index	288