A corpus-based grammar for ELT
Dieter Mindt (Berlin, Germany)
The year 2000 will see the publication of the book An empirical grammar of the English verb
system. The grammar is fully based on machine-readable corpora containing more than 240
million words. It is learner and teacher oriented.
Original research was carried out for the description of each item. All examples provided in
the grammar are authentic. The approach is inductive: from language data to grammatical
generalization.
Wherever possible, frequency data are supplied. This new feature is especially important for
the language learner, the language teacher, and the author of teaching materials. Learning and
teaching can thus be directed to what is central and important in language use.
The grammar makes use of a number of grammatical categories which evolved from the
analysis of the data. There is a new paradigm of English verb forms as well as a new
definition of catenative verbs which leads to a novel distinction between finite and non-finite
verb phrases.
The description is based on a new analysis of the English verb phrase. All verb patterns are
described as exponents of a coherent structural description of the English verb phrase. Within
this model there are no exceptions. All instances of verbs and verb phrases can be explained
as cases of rule-governed grammatical behaviour.