English Syntax [Hardcover]

C.L. Baker (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262022877 | ISBN-13: 978-0262022873 | Publication Date: January 1, 1989

"English Syntax is an important new text for courses in grammar at the undergraduate level and at the beginning graduate level. Written by a well-known syntactician, it offers an informal but systematic discussion of the basic rules of English sentence structure. It incorporates the fundamental insights that have been brought to the field of English syntax by research in generative grammar. "English Syntax" introduces the goals and techniques of syntactic study. It then takes up basic topics in phrasal syntax, including phrase types, heads, complements, and subjects; completes the discussion of phrasal syntax by describing various kinds of modifying structures; and looks at several special constructions, including the existential construction, the cleft construction, direct questions, imperatives, and exclamatives. A concluding section discusses negation conjunction, ellipsis, tense, aspect, and other areas in which syntax and semantics are closely related. The book's pedagogical aids are particularly useful. These include many illustrations - both standard tree diagrams and a variety of special diagrams. In addition each chapter contains several sets of exercises, each set occurring at a key point in the body of the chapter. Several chapters include special sections that provide practical guidance to situations in which distinct constructions share perplexing superficial similarities. C. L. Baker is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Texas, Austin He is author of a textbook on syntactic theory, "Introduction to Generative-Transformational Syntax, " and a co-editor (with John McCarthy) of "The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

C. L. Baker was a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 450 pages
• Publisher: MIT Press (January 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262022877
• ISBN-13: 978-0262022873
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,446,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Textbook on Beginning Englsh Syntax, November 3, 2011

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Mssr. Nomdeplume (Monster Island, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: English Syntax - 2nd Edition (Paperback)

I got this because Mark Lester recommended it in his "Grammar and Usage in the Classroom." It was written to be an introductory classroom text on English syntax, which makes it great for someone like me without prior linguistics experience. And like Grammar and Usage, you'll learn lots of those usage tests to determine what a particular phrase is doing in a sentence, both sharpening your analytical skills and helping you to explain it to curious students. The chapter contents proceed with a deductive logic that is almost mathematical, analyzing every little phrase embedded in a larger phrase, and discovering new rules as you go along. This book has definitely stretched my head.