AN21003BA/AN1050MA/AN2104OMA CHALLENGING GRAMMAR
Spring 2015
Time: Friday 14.00-15.40
Place: 54
Instructor: Cserép Attila
Office hours: Monday 15.00-16.00 and Friday 10.30-11.30
Office: 1/3
Course aim and material
This course supplements the study of descriptive grammar with a linguistic approach to the traditional grammar
topics that students are familiar with. It will offer further grammar practice as well as insight into the grammar
areas with the help of exercises based on naturally occurring data. The aim of the course is to help the student
analyze English grammar and understand how it works in real communication.
Requirements and procedures
The grammar topics in the schedule will be discussed with the help of presentations given by 2-3 students each
time. The presentations will be based on the readings specified under “Recommended sources” below and will
be distributed to students in advance, who will then present the ideas, examples, explanations in non-electronic
format (printed handouts with or without exercises). You are welcome to make comments on what you have
read and do not hesitate to ask your tutor if something is not clear. The time of a presentation will depend on
the quantity of the reading as well as the format of the presentation, but ideally will take up 15-20 minutes.
Remember that others will probably also present and some time should be devoted to “traditional” grammar
practice as well. The presenter will preferably include exercises to involve the others and test their
understanding. Most readings include exercises which can be used, but the presenter is encouraged to create
additional exercises. These may vary from simple questions about the grammaticality of a sentence to the
analysis of sentences/constructions, from multiple choice tasks to matching exercises.
Textbook
No single textbook.
Recommended sources
Berry, Roger. 2012. English Grammar: A Resource Book for Students. London and New York: Routledge.
Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad and Edward Finegan. 1999. Longman
Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Longman.
Brinton, Laurel J. 2000. The Structure of Modern English: A Linguistic Introduction. Amsterdam and
Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Dixon, R. M. W. 2005. A Semantic Approach to English Grammar. Oxford: OUP.
Downing, Angela and Philip Locke. 2006. English Grammar: A University Course. London and New York:
Routledge.
Huddleston, Rodney and Geoffrey K. Pullum. 2005. A Student’s Introduction to English Grammmar.
Cambridge: CUP.
Leech, Geoffrey, Margaret Deuchar and Robert Hoogenraad. 2005. English Grammar for Today. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Lobeck, Anne and Kristin Denham. 2014. Navigating English Grammar: A Guide to Analyzing Real
Language. Wiley-Blackwell.
Mullany, Louise and Peter Stockwell. 2010. Introducing English Language: A Resource Book for Students.
London and New York: Routledge.
Payne, Thomas E. 2011. Understanding English Grammar: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge: CUP.
Peters, Pam. 2004. The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: CUP.
Radden, Günter and René Dirven. 2007. Cognitive English Grammar. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John
Benjamins Publishing Company.
Assessment
Assessment will be in the form of a mid-term test and end-term test. The mid-term will cover the first half of
the course, the end-term will cover the second half, and both tests will include questions based on the
presentations as well as any practical exercises done in class. The presentations will account for 40% of the
course grade, the mid-term and end-term will each account for 30%.
Week 1
Feb 20
Determiners and pronouns
Berry: English Grammar-A Resource Book: C3 Usage problem with determiners 147149, D3 Determiners: A class apart 199-205
Downing and Locke: English Grammar-A University Course: 45.2 403-404, Module
47 Selecting and particularising the referent: the determiner 423-434
Leech et al: English Grammar for Today: 4.3.1 Determiners 59, 5.3.2 Pronouns and
determiners 72-73
Huddleston and Pullum: A Student’s Intro: 5.4 Determinatives 19, 3 Determiners and
determinatives 90-93, 7 The fused head construction 97-100
Lobeck and Denham: Navigating English Grammar: Table 1.1 on page 11, 3
Categories that precede nouns 42-50
Payne: Understanding English Grammar: The determining function 167-168 see also
Syntactic categories, esp the table 164-165
Week 2
Feb 27
Relative clauses
Berry: English Grammar-A Resource Book: B10 Relative clauses 126-130
Downing and Locke: English Grammar-A University Course: Module 49 Identifying
and elaborating the referent: the post-modifier 446-456
Leech et al: English Grammar for Today: 7.2.3 relative clauses 109-110, 7.4.3
Tenseless relative clauses 113
Huddleston and Pullum: A Student’s Intro: Ch 11 Relative clauses 183-192
Lobeck and Denham: Navigating English Grammar: Clauses that modify nouns:
Relative clauses 255-265
Payne: Understanding English Grammar: Relative clauses 347-353
Week 3
March 6
The syntax of clauses
Berry: English Grammar-A Resource Book: C8 Analysing clauses 166-168
Downing and Locke: English Grammar-A University Course: 1.3 Three ways of
interpreting clause structure 5-8, 2.4.1 Classes of clauses 12-15, 2.5.1 Syntactic
elements of clauses 17, Module 4 Syntactci elements and structures of the clause 3941, Module 5 Subject and predicator 42-49, Module 6 Direct, indirect and
prepositional objects 50-63, Module 7 Subject and object complements 64-68, Module
8 Adjuncts 69-76
Leech et al: English Grammar for Today: 6.1 Elements of the clause 85-87, 6.6 More
on clause structure 93-94, 6.7 Clause patterns 94-96
Huddleston and Pullum: A Student’s Intro: Ch 4 Clause structures, complements and
adjuncts
Lobeck and Denham: Navigating English Grammar: Subjects 125-129
Payne: Understanding English Grammar: Grammatical relations 169-172, Predication
172-174
Week 4
March 13
The semantics of clauses and predicate types
Berry: English Grammar-A Resource Book: D8 Semantic roles of the subject 233-240
Dixon: A Semantic Approach: 1.3 Semantic roles and syntactic relations 9-12, 3.3
Introduction to verb types 93-95, 2.4 Primary and secondary verbs 96-101
Downing and Locke: English Grammar-A University Course: Module 13
Conceptualising experiences expressed as situation types 122-127, Module 14
Material processes of doing and happening 128-131, Module 15 Causative processes
132-136, Module 16 Processes of transfer 137-138, Module 17 Conceptualising what
we think, perceive and feel 139-143, Module 18 Relational processes of being and
becoming 144-150, Module 19 Processes of saying behaving and existing 151-154,
Module 20 Expressing attendant circumstances155-159, 166 summary table,
Payne: Understanding English Grammar 6.1 Semantic roles 134-139, 6.2 Verb
subclasses 139-151, 9.2 Subject complements 208-216, 9.3 Object complements 216219
Week 5
March 20
Patterns and structures
Berry: English Grammar-A Resource Book: B8 Verb patterns 113-117; C6 Verbs
which can be transitive and intransitive 158-161; C7 Ergativity 162-165
Dixon: A Semantic Approach: 2.8 Omission of be 53-54, 2.11.2 Causatives 59-61,
2.11.4 Promotion to subject 61-62, 2.11.5 Reflexives 62-64, 2.11.7 HAVE A VERB,
GIVE A VERB and TAKE A VERB 66-67
Downing and Locke: English Grammar-A University Course: Module 9 Intransitive
and copular patterns 85-89, Module 10 Transitive patterns 90-99, Module 11
Complementation by finite clauses 100-107, Module 12 Complementation by nonfinite clauses 108-115
Payne: Understanding English Grammar: Chapter 13 Voice and valence 303-325
Week 6
March 27
MID-TERM TEST
Week 7
April 3
Subordination and Coordination
Berry: English Grammar-A Resource Book: A9 53-58
Dixon: A Semantic Approach: 2.12 Clause linking 67-71
Downing and Locke: English Grammar-A University Course: Module 31 Clause
combining 272-276, Module 32 Types of relationships between clauses 277-280,
Module 33 Elaborating the message 281-284, Module 34 Extending the message 285289, Module 35 Enhancing the message 290-298
Leech et al: English Grammar for Today: 6.2 Complex sentences 87-89,
Subordination and Coordination 104-107, 7.5 Direct and indirect 114-115, 7.6
Skeleton analysis 115-117, 7.7 Coordination 117-119
Huddleston and Pullum: A Student’s Intro: 7.3 Subordination 25, 7.4 Coordination 25,
1 Subordinate clauses 174-175, Ch 14 Coordination and more 225-237
Lobeck and Denham: Navigating English Grammar: 10 Independent, Coordinate and
Subordinate Clauses 210-219
Payne: Understanding English Grammar: 14.4 Coordination 353-355
Week 8
April 10
Week 9
April 17
Week 10
April 24
Nonfinite clauses
Berry: English Grammar-A Resource Book: A10 61-63
Downing and Locke: English Grammar-A University Course: 5.1.2 Realisations of the
Subject 47, 6.1.2 Realisations of the Direct Object 53-54, 12 Complementation by
non-finite clauses 108-115, 33.3 Non-finite supplementive clauses: specifying and
commenting 284, 34.4 Implicit meanings of -ing supplementives 288, 35.4 Non-finite
clauses expressing circumstantial meanings 296-297, 53.1.2 Complementation by
non-finite clauses 496-497
Leech et al: English Grammar for Today: 7.4 Tenseless subordinate clauses 112-114,
12.8 Dangling tenseless clauses 192-193
Huddleston and Pullum: A Student’s Intro: Ch 15 Non-finite clauses and clauses
without verbs 204-223
Lobeck and Denham: Navigating English Grammar: 10 Independent, Coordinate and
Subordinate Clauses 223-229
Payne: Understanding English Grammar 14.2 The forms of dependent clauses 331334, Clausal Objects and other Complement clauses 336-344
Week 11
May 1
HOLIDAY
Week 12
May 8
Discourse: pro-forms, ellipsis, cohesion
Berry: English Grammar-A Resource Book: B11 Beyond and beneath the sentence
131-134
Dixon: A Semantic Approach: 2.12 Clause linking esp 68-69, 70, 2.13 Syntactic
preferences and constraints 72, 2.14 Summary of omission conventions 74Downing and Locke: English Grammar-A University Course: 29.5 Ellipsis 243-244,
29.6 Substitution 244-245, 35.5 Discourse connectivity and cohesion: initial vs final
circumstantial clauses 298, 45.7.3 The discourse function of pronouns 415-416, 45.7.4
Substitute one/ones 416
Finite clauses
Berry: English Grammar-A Resource Book: A10 58-61
Downing and Locke: English Grammar-A University Course: 5.1.2 Realisations of the
Subject 46, 6.1.2 Realisations of the Direct Object 53, 11 Complementation by finite
clauses 100-107, 35.2 Finite dependent clauses of time, contingency and manner 292294, 35.3 Pragmatic conjunction 294-296, 35.5 Discourse connectivity and cohesion:
Initial vs final circumstantial clauses 298, 53.1.1 Complementation by finite clauses
495
Leech et al: English Grammar for Today: 7.2 Tensed subordinate clauses 107-111
Huddleston and Pullum: A Student’s Intro: 2 Clause type in content clauses-5
Exclamative content clauses 175-181
Lobeck and Denham: Navigating English Grammar: Subordinate ClauseTypes 216222, 229-236
Payne: Understanding English Grammar 14.2 The forms of dependent clauses 331334, 14.3 The functions of dependent clauses 334-347 good summary table on page
354
CONSULTATION WEEK
Leech et al: English Grammar for Today: 8.3 ‘Missing’ elements 126-128
Huddleston and Pullum: A Student’s Intro: 9 Reduction 258-261
Week 13
May 15
Discourse: theme, inversion, focus, fronting
Berry: English Grammar-A Resource Book: A11 63-70, C9 Exploring texts (1) 170171
Dixon: A Semantic Approach: 2.13 Syntactic preferences and constraints 71
Downing and Locke: English Grammar-A University Course: Module 28 Theme 223237, Module 29 The distribution and focus of information 238-245, Module 30 The
interplay of theme-rheme and given-new 246-262
Leech et al: English Grammar for Today: 8.2 Basic and derived structures 124-125,
8.7 Style-and structure changing rules 134-137
Huddleston and Pullum: A Student’s Intro: 1 Introduction 238-240, 3 Extraposition
247-249, Existential clauses 249-251, 5 The it-cleft construction 251-253, 6 Pseudoclefts 254, 7 Dislocation 255, 8 Preposing and postposing 256-258
Payne: Understanding English Grammar 9.5 Subject-complement inversion
constructions 220-221, 9.6 Existential and presentational constructions 222-225,
Focus 367-371; Cleft constructions 372
Week 14
May 22
END-TERM TEST