ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR TODAY(Ceoffrey Leech,Margaret Deuchar,Robert Hoogenraad)

ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR TODAY(Ceoffrey Leech,Margaret Deuchar,Robert Hoogenraad)

     

Product Summery

This is an introductory course in English grammar for use in English-medium schools, colleges and universities. Lamentably, there is at present no recognised place for English grammar in the British educational curriculum. In fact it is still possible for a student to end up  with a degree in English at a British university without having cause to know the first thing about English grammar, or the grammar of any other language.But if we are right in supposing that the time is right for a revival of the subject in schools, there will be a growing need  for introductory courses at various levels. Thus this book has a multiple purpose. It is primarily designed as a course book for students at the upper secondary level (sixth forms) and the tertiary level (colleges, polytechnics, univer-sities), but it is also adapted to the  needs of teachers interested in ex-ploring a new approach to grammar, or of any person keen to catch up with a subject so wretchedly neglected by our educational system.
If grammar is to become a vital subject in the English curriculum, we have to exorcise finally the spectre of Browning's grammarian who Gave us the doctrine of the enclitic De Dead from the waist down (Robert Browning, The Grammarian's Funeral)
That spectre still haunts our collective consciousness in the form of a Victorian schoolmaster instilling guilty feelings about split infinitives and dangling participles, and vague fears that grammar may prove to be nothing else than hacking the corpses of sentences to pieces  and stick-ing labels on the resulting fragments. That is why some of this book is devoted to the correcting of preconceptions. Part A, 'Introduction', is meant to provide a reorientation: dispelling myths, and seeking a new appraisal of the value of grammar in present-day  education. Part B,'Analysis', is the main part of the book, presenting a method for describ-ing the grammatical structure of sentences. Part C, 'Applications', shows how this method of analysis can be used in the study of style in its broadest sense, and in  the development of written language skills.The system of grammatical analysis introd uced in Part Bis influenced by the systemic grammar of M. A. K. Halliday, and more directly by that found in Randolph Quirk et al., A Grammar o[ Contemporary English (1972), and its  adaptations in Quirk and Greenbaum, A University Grammar o[ English (1974) and l.eech and Svartvik, A Communicative Grammar o[ English (1975). It is a framework which has been widely adopted in the study of English by non-native speakers, making informal use of modern developments in linguistics, but not departing without good reason from traditional terms and categories which are to some extent a common cultural heritage of the Western world. Naturally the framework has had to be considerably simplified.  'Grammar', for our purpose, is defined in a narrow sense for which nowadays the term 'syntax' is sometimes used. It means roughly 'the rules for constructing sentences out of words', and it excludes, strictly speaking, the study of what words and senten ces mean, and  how they are pronounced.
Exercises are provided at the end of each chapter, but their function in each Part is somewhat different. For Part A the exercises are merely an encouragement towards thinking on new lines about grammar. In Part B the exercises are much more fuHy integrated into  the learning process; it is important for students to test their progress in understanding the system by doing the exercises where indicated. In part C the exercises in Chapters 8-10 invite the student to try out the system of grammatical analysis on different styles and  varieties of English. Here grammar will be seen in relation to other levels of language, such as meaning and vocabulary, as part of the total functioning of language as a communication system.
The book can be used as a course book, each chapter providing one or two weeks' work, though the exercises are varied in form and purpose. Some exercises consist of problems with more or less definite answers, and in these cases answers are given at the back of the  book (pp.199-214). Other exercises are open-ended tasks to which no answers can be given. The exercises which have answers provided are so indicated by the cross-reference 'answers on p. 00' alongside the heading. Thus those using the book for private study  will gain some feedback, while teachers using the book as a course book will find enough material for week-by-week preparation and discussion, in addition to the exercises which students may check for themselves.
Following the Answers to Exercises, we list books and articles for Further Reading (on pp.215-17). The list is alphabetical, and on the few occasions in the text where we need to refer to one of the works listed,references are given by the author's name, the tide, and the  date of publication: e.g. 'Crystal, Linguistics, 1971'. It would be impossible to give due credit to grammarians and other scholars whose work and ideas have influenced this book directly or indirectly; where such ideas have become part of the currency of present- day linguistics, we make no attempt to do so.
Although the book does not include a glossary of technical terms,the function of such a glossary can be matched by careful use of the Index, in which technical terms of grammar are listed alphabetically,together with the pages on which they are introduced and  explained.We thank Martin McDonald for providing us with the material quoted on pp. 151, 153, 155-6.
We owe a general debt to the English Association, which provided the impetus and opportunity for the writing of this book, and a more particular debt to the Chairman of its Publications Subcommittee,Geoffrey Harlow, and to other members of the Association, especially Raymond Chapman, who have given us encouragement and detailed guidance.

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