Syntactic Argumentation

The aim of this chapter is to discuss the role of syntactic argumentation in the description of English grammar. The chapter first discusses some of the general principles that are used in syntactic argumentation, namely economy and elegance, which are regarded as two dimensions of simplicity. These principles are then exemplified in a number of case studies. The final section discusses how argumentation can be used to establish constituency in clauses.

Inflection and Derivation

The chapter presents an overview of phenomena which pose important problems of description and analysis. I focus on the inflectional system, which has undergone severe attrition and shows idiosyncrasies typical of such systems. For nominals I describe the personal pronoun paradigm and the ‘possessive -s’ clitic/phrasal affix. The controversial categorial status of adverbs in -ly is discussed, while for verbs, all the subcategories prove to be highly problematical. For instance, only 50 irregular verbs distinguish past tense from past participle (e.g. wrote/written), so it is not even clear whether the past participle category is a highly restricted subcategory, with the vast majority of verbs showing past tense/past participle syncretism, or whether this is a case of ‘overdifferentiation’, like the forms am, are, were of the verb BE. On the other hand, the polyfunctionality of the completely regular -ing suffix, which derives verb, noun, and adjective forms, also poses serious unresolved problems. Auxiliary verbs and related phenomena alternate between periphrastic, clitic, and genuinely morphological (affixal) constructions. The chapter concludes with consideration of those aspects of derivational morphology which seem to be indisputably productive, hence part of the grammar, including (certain types of) event nominalization, some cases of double object alternation, and morphosemantic mismatches of the kind electrical engineering ⇒ electrical engineer.

Subordination and Coordination

This chapter describes the forms and functions of the main types of subordinate clauses, as well as various types of both phrasal and clausal coordination. The two main types of subordination, modification and complementation, are distinguished in relation to both finite and non-finite subordinate clauses. Various means of signalling subordination are described. It is shown how subordinate non-finite clauses, which lack primary tense, are largely dependent on the main clause predicate for their temporal interpretation, and how understood subjects in subordinate clauses may be coreferential with various nominals in the main clause. As for coordination, both bare heads and heads with dependents may be coordinated and, although we normally coordinate like with like, the items being coordinated do not necessarily have to be identical in form, nor indeed in function. Some constructions are discussed that straddle the binary distinction between coordination and subordination.

Compounds

This chapter considers two points about compounds in English in detail. The first is the definition. It is argued that there is no reliable definition of a compound in English. This is partly because of problems with the definition of a word, where criteria for wordhood break down precisely in the area of compounding. The second major point about compounds is their meaning. Various construction types with apparently different meanings are termed ‘compounds’ (endocentric compound, exocentric compounds, coordinative compounds) but it is not always easy to fit individual examples into these construction types. The range of compound types in English is also canvassed, and the problem of the borderline between compounds and other constructions is a recurrent theme. Questions of headedness and binarity are treated in less depth, as are theoretical treatments of compounds.

Grammar and Lexis

This chapter is concerned with lexis and grammar and discusses the relationship between them from the perspective of a selected number of specific, formal and functional, linguistic theories. The assumptions held can basically be associated with two positions. One considers the two phenomena as distinct parts of language (dual-system theories, representative of formalist frameworks), and the other suggests that lexicon and grammar are gradient phenomena sitting on a continuum (single-system models, representative of functional approaches). Both positions are elaborated and evaluated as to how well observations from language use fit into them. The existence of lexical and grammatical units (having different properties) as well as many ‘mixed’ units containing lexical and grammatical elements (exhibiting properties of both) suggest no clear dividing line between lexis and grammar. Instead, their relation can be understood in terms of Aarts’ (2007a: 163) ‘intersective gradience’, as intersecting sets of properties rather than intersecting categories.

Functional Approaches

All functional approaches share the conviction that the structure of languages and their historical development are strongly impacted by the cognitive properties of language users, the social relations between them, and the spatio-temporal and socio-cultural contexts in which they operate. This chapter describes how functionalism has impinged on the study of English grammar and covers the interrelations of discourse and grammar, various corpus- and usage-based approaches, the influence of processing considerations, the hierarchical organization of the clause, information structure, the noun phrase, and the contributions of language typology. The grammatical analysis of English has been enriched by the insight that its structures are bound up with our ability to participate in dialogues, to construct written texts, to surmize the state of mind of our conversational partner, to modulate our formulations to maximize politeness, and to use different registers or dialects in different social contexts.

Global Variation in the Anglophone World

Based on the data set in the electronic World Atlas of Varieties of English, the primary purpose of this chapter is to determine the areal and global reach as well as the degree of distinctiveness of morphosyntactic properties for fifty spontaneous spoken L1 and L2 Englishes as well as twenty-six English-based pidgins and creoles spoken in seven Anglophone world regions (Africa, North America, Australia, British Isles, the Caribbean, the Pacific, South and Southeast Asia). Central questions addressed include the following: Which are the most widespread non-standard morphosyntactic features in the Anglophone world? Are there distinctive, or even diagnostic, features for the different variety types? Is it possible to identify systematic correlations between variety type and different degrees of structural complexity? Which are the most widespread or even diagnostic features for the different parts of the English-speaking world?

Literary Variation

This chapter investigates grammatical variation in literary texts. It introduces key concepts in stylistics and discusses topics that stylisticians have been concerned with at the interface between literature and grammar, such as the use in literary texts of non-standard forms of the language and the iconic use of grammar to produce literary meaning and effects. Stylistics is now very much more than the application of linguistic description to the language of literature and has developed theories and models of its own. But at the core of the discipline remains text (both spoken and written) and the notion that text producers have choices as to how they put language into texts. This chapter explains the grammatical aspects of such choices and the literary effects they can have.

Change in Grammar

The chapter discusses morphological and syntactic change against the backdrop of different theoretical (formal versus functional/usage-based) and methodological approaches (introspection versus corpus data). Specifically, it addresses the question whether grammatical change happens suddenly in a catastrophic resetting of parameters or whether change happens in a more piecemeal, incremental fashion. The case studies that are used to illustrate syntactic demise, innovation, and grammatical revival come from the area of mood (an inflectional category) and modality, notably the grammaticalization of modal verbs. Semi-modals such as (had) better are discussed as examples of constructionalization. Taken together, grammatical changes in mood and modality are ideally suited to exemplify more long-term typological developments in English from a synthetic to a largely analytic language.

Dependency and Valency Approaches

This chapter provides a survey of various approaches within the field of dependency grammar. First, the basic concepts of Tesnière’s Éléments de syntaxe structurale (1959) such as actants, circonstants, junction, and translation are outlined. Then the application of the concept of dependency in different approaches such as that taken in Hudson’s Word Grammar and in Mel’čuk’s approach are discussed. Section 7.4 focuses on the development of valency theory and related approaches and their application to English, discussing the complement–adjunct distinction, the idea of optionality of complements and the approach taken to the description of valency in the Valency Dictionary of English. Finally, it will be shown how valency and dependency can be related to more recent constructionist theories.