Morphosyntax

The Origins and Development of the English Language

2011-11-20T21:01:00.000-08:00

About the Author

John Algeo is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Georgia. He is past president of the American Dialect Society, the Dictionary Society of North America, and the American Name Society. He was an associate editor of the OXFORD COMPANION TO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE and editor of Volume 6 of the CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: ENGLISH IN NORTH AMERICA. He was a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar and a Guggenheim Fellow at University College London and is author of the 2006 Cambridge book BRITISH OR AMERICAN ENGLISH? A HANDBOOK OF WORD AND GRAMMAR PATTERNS. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Sentence Structure

2009-07-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

Routledge Language Workbooks provide absolute beginners with practical introductions to core areas of language study. Books in the series provide comprehensive coverage of the area as well as a basis for further investigation. Each Language Workbook guides the reader through the subject using 'hands-on' language analysis, equipping them with the basic analytical skills needed to handle a wide range of data. Written in a clear and simple style, with all technical concepts fully explained, Language Workbooks can be used for independent study or as part of a taught class.
Sentence Structure:
- introduces the evidence for sentence structure and reveals its purpose
- is based on a problem-solving approach to language
- teaches the reader how to identify word classes, such as noun, preposition and demonstrative
- uses simple tree structures to analyse sentences
- contains numerous exercises to encourage practical skills of sentence analysis
- includes a database and exercises that compare the structure of English with other languages
The second edition has been revised and updated throughout.

The Sentence in Written English: A Syntactic Study Based on an Analysis of Scientific Texts

2009-07-05T20:11:00.000-07:00

A substantially revised edition of Huddleston's contribution to Sentence and Clause in Scientific English, the final report of a research project into the linguistic properties of scientific English carried out at University College London in 1964-7. The book has two complementary aims: to analyse certain areas of the grammar of 'common-core' English - the grammar that is common to all varieties of the language - and to apply this analysis to a selective grammatical description of a corpus of some 135,000 words of written scientific English. The theoretical framework underlying the description is that of transformational grammar but the author also draws heavily on M. A. K. Halliday's work on English grammar. Full details of the corpus are given in the appendix. The texts are arranged in three levels, high, middle and low, according to the audience addressed by the author - scholarly, student and general/popular.

Endoclitics and the Origins of Udi Morphosyntax (Oxford Linguistics)

2009-06-05T04:42:00.000-07:00

This book provides a description and analysis of a phenomenon that appears to be unique among languages that have been brought to the attention of linguists, namely the possibility of small words occurring inside other words. Examination of this is important because it helps us to understand what a word is from a cross-linguistic point of view. The second part of the book shows how Udi came to be so different from other languages, and how in this sense it explains the phenomenon.

Grammaticalization: Studies in Latin and Roman Morphosyntax (Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, Series IV: Current Iss

2009-06-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

Grammaticalization: Studies in Latin and Roman Morphosyntax (Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, Series IV: Current Issues in Linguistic Theory)

Tense and Aspect: From Semantics to Morphosyntax (Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax)

2009-06-04T21:07:00.000-07:00

The authors bridge the gap between the semantic and syntactic properties of verb tense and aspect, and suggest a unified account of tense and aspect using Chomsky's Principles and Parameters Framework. They compare tense and aspect systems in Romance languages with Germanic ones.

Arabic Second Language Acquisition of Morphosyntax

2009-06-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

While the demand for Arabic classes and preparation programs for Arabic language teachers has increased, there is a notable gap in the field of linguistic research on learning Arabic as a second language. Arabic Second Language Acquisition of Morphosyntax presents a data-driven and systematic analysis of Arabic language acquisition that responds to this growing need.

Based on large data samples collected from longitudinal and cross-sectional studies, this book explores a broad range of structures and acquisition issues. It also introduces new and comprehensive research, and it documents the successes and problems that native speakers of other languages, including English, Spanish, French, and Japanese, are likely to encounter in learning Arabic.

By integrating previously published findings with new research, the author has created a unified and streamlined resource for teachers, teachers-in-training, linguists, Arabic textbook authors, and second-language acquisition experts.

English Sentence Structure (Intensive Course in English Series)

2009-05-18T15:18:00.000-07:00

Description
Part of the classic Michigan Rainbow series.
English Sentence Structure presents and clarifies all facets of the sentence for beginning and intermediate students. Oral drills, examples, and written exercises form a pattern of regular review and self-evaluation. Each lesson is coordinated with English Pattern Practices.

English Structure Practices

2009-05-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

This workbook, which may be used independently or in conjunction with English Sentence Structure, contains more than 400 exercises that cover beginning- and intermediate-level grammar points such as tenses, articles, count and noncount nouns, modals, verbals, relative clauses, passive voice, adverbs, and conditional sentences.
This is the workbook to accompany English Sentence Structure.

Review By Molly Vargas "mollyjean1120" (Baja California Sur, Mexico)
I have given this book away to different school's where I have taught in Minnesota, and in Mexico (Chiapas, San Luis Potosi). Now I find myself teaching again, and I need it! I'm ordering another copy from Amazon.com!

This book gives ESL/EFL students the repetition they need, and it makes it so simple, that they don't mind the work! It is page after page of photocopiable worksheets that start from zero--the verb "to be" and goes on to advanced.

You can use it for extra practice specific area for a student who needs it, or for everyday class worksheets, quizzes, homework, or games (I put one item up at a time, and see who comes up with the correct answer first)...

After I know my students understand a concept I make sure they can put it into practice in many different ways. This book is the easiest way I've found to do that. English Structure Practices has all the bases covered...including exceptions to rules that I may not have remembered.

It's VERY THOROUGH! And that's how my students want to learn and I want to teach; thoroughly!

Discovering Grammar: An Introduction to English Sentence Structure

2009-05-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

Description
This introduction to basic sentence structure encourages readers to explore grammar through critical thinking and analysis of a variety of different texts including excerpts from poetry, novels, television, movies, and more. Part One provides an overview of different definitions of and approaches to grammar, outlining the approach to descriptive grammar taken in the text. Part Two introduces each syntactic category and highlights the basic division between lexical and grammatical categories. Part Three focuses on the structure of sentences. The book incorporates several types of exercises including "discovery problems," text analysis, and language diversity exercises.

English Word-Formation (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)

2009-05-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

Interest in word-formation is probably as old as interest in language itself. As Dr Bauer points out in his Introduction, many of the questions that scholars are asking now were also being asked in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, there is still little agreement on methodology in the study of word-formation or theoretical approaches to it; even the kind of data relevant to its study is open to debate. Dr Bauer here provides students and general linguists alike with a new perspective on what is a confused and often controversial field of study, providing a resolution to the terminological confusion which currently reigns in this area. In doing so, he clearly demonstrates the challenge and intrinsic fascination of the study of word-formation. Linguists have recently become increasingly aware of the relevance of word-formation to work in syntax and semantics, phonology and morphology, and Dr Bauer discusses - within a largely synchronic and transformational framework - the theoretical issues involved. He considers topics where word-formation has a contribution to make to other areas of linguistics and, without pretending to provide a fully-fledged theory of word-formation, develops those points which he sees as being central to its study. The book draws on a wide range of sources, and general points are illustrated from a variety of languages. As the title suggests, though, the exposition is principally illustrated with material drawn from English, including close analysis of a number of sets of neologisms. A survey of the types of word-formation found in English is also included. Some background in linguistics is assumed, but students of linguistics and English language with no previous knowledge of word-formation or of morphology at all will find English Word-Formation an accessible and stimulating textbook.

Book Description
Although the illustrative material is drawn principally from English, general points are illustrated with a variety of languages to provide a new perspective on a confused and often controversial field of study.

English Words: Structure, History, Usage

2009-05-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has an interest in the systematic study of words will find this book entertaining and serious at the same time. In an age of the World Wide Web and mobile technologies, this revised edition rightly addresses the impact on the lexicon from electronic-mediated communication. The student of language will find the challenging exercises, the hyperlinks and the various well-chosen examples particularly stimulating for understanding the nature of language.

Katamba brings words to life. So relaxed is his style that English Words often reads like a leisurely chat with an old friend. But don't be fooled...the data is used expertly to introduce a wide range of lexical issues and to provide deceptively sophisticated insights into morphology, semantics and phonology.

Katamba brings words to life. So relaxed is his style that English Words often reads like a leisurely chat with an old friend. But dont be fooled...the data is used expertly to introduce a wide range of lexical issues and to provide deceptively sophisticated insights into morphology, semantics and phonology.

Product Description
How do we find the right word for the job? Where does that word come from? Why do we spell it like that? And how do we know what it means?
Words are all around us - we use them every day to communicate our joys, fears, hopes, opinions, wishes and demands - but we don't often think about them too deeply. In this highly accessible introduction to English words, the reader will discover what the study of words can tell them about the extraordinary richness and complexity of our daily vocabulary and about the nature of language in general.
Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, the book covers a wide range of topics, including the structure of words, the meaning of words, how their spelling relates to pronunciation, how new words are manufactured or imported from other languages, and how the meaning of words changes with the passage of time. It also investigates how the mind deals with words by highlighting the amazing intellectual feat performed routinely when the right word is retrieved from the mental dictionary. This revised and expanded second edition brings the study of words right up to date with coverage of text messaging and email and includes new material on psycholinguistics and word meaning.
With lively examples from a range of sources - encompassing poetry, jokes, journalism, advertising and clichés - and including practical exercises and a fully comprehensive glossary, English Words is an entertaining introduction to the study of words and will be of interest to anyone who uses them.

Blends: Their Relation To English Word Formation

2009-05-10T09:21:00.000-07:00

Prefatory Note. The following pages grew, by gradual accretion, out of some chance notations of blends made from time to time by the author, or brought to her attention by others. The form into which the discussion shaped itself is due to the manner of its genesis, rather than to preliminary plan, or to any original intention on the part of the author to treat the subject. Of chief interest, probably, is the section dealing with the present-day vogue of blend formations. It seems time that specific attention be called to the contemporary popularity of blends, and to the freedom felt in their coinage, not only in the factitious creations of the lettered class, and in folk-forms, but in scientific nomenclature, in trade terms, and in arbi- trarily made baptismal names and place-names. Since treatment is limited to English blends, no effort was made, where bibliographical citations are given, to include references to blends in other languages. Contents. I. General Nature and Interest of Blend-Words 1 II. Relation to Standard or Literary Speech III. Some Delimitations . . 6 IV. Present-Day Vogue V. General Classes of Blends VI. Illustrative Lists of English Blends of Blend Formations 12 3 19 25 I. General Nature and Interest of Blend-Words. Blend-words, amalgams, or fusions, may be defined as two or more words, often of cognate sense, telescoped as it were into one as factitious conflations which retain, for a while at least, the suggestive power of their various elements. Probably they are best known to the general public, not through discussion by professional linguists, but through the portmanteau words, i. e., words into which two meanings are packed as in a portmanteau, of a passage in Lewis Carrolls Through the Looking Glass... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

The Semantics of English Negative Prefixes

2009-05-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

The Semantics of English Negative Prefixes proposes a new system for describing the semantic properties of negative prefixes in English. Specifically, the system captures the semantic distinctions between pairs of negative words that share same bases but end in different prefixes like amoral vs. immoral, dissatisfied vs. unsatisfied, maltreat vs. mistreat, non-human vs. anti-human, etc. The book provides guidance on two matters. As a reference for derivation, it informs the readers about the mechanisms of forming negative words. To do so, it describes the prefixes in terms of the cognitive theories of category, domain and construal. As a reference for usage, it informs the readers about the meaning differences between prefixally-negated words. To do so, it bases the description on actual instances and supports the differences by means of collocations. The Semantics of English Negative Prefixes outlines a model that unifies the principles of two popular approaches to language description. Cognitive Semantics is the theory that takes account of mental operations. Usage-based Semantics is the practice that focuses on actual utterances. Accordingly, it is an essential source for any reader interested in English language. It achieves its aims by means of clear layout, actual data, ample exemplification, lucid explanation and discrete evidence.

The Learning Works: Prefixes and Suffixes, Grades 4-8: Teaching Vocabulary to Improve Reading Comprehension

2009-05-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

The national standards require that sutdents beginning at 4th grade use their knowledge of prefixes and suffixes to determine the meaning of words. Each of the 30 units in this book includes a word list, vocabulary sort words, review game cards, and a vocabulary quiz. Students will learn over 300 vocabulary words and become more comfortable "disecting" words and defining their parts.

I am using this for those students in my class who breeze through the Language Arts spelling words every week. I give a pretest on Monday. If a student misses fewer than five out of twenty of the spelling words, they study these vocabulary words instead. The book is organized wonderfully well, so that you can assign one prefix or suffix each week. The author gives you a list of ten words with the pre- or suffix (for visual learners), a page with the words and meanings mixed up so they have to cut it apart and match them up again (for your tactile learners) and then a multiple choice test where the students must determine which word fits into the sentence (very difficult - student needs to apply their knowledge and comprehension of the word to determine in which sentence the word would work.) I highly recommend this book for grades 4 through 6 - it is a challenge for my highest students! Mainstream students in higher grades (7 -8) would still find it challenging.

An Introduction to English Morphology

2009-03-09T02:54:00.000-07:00

What exactly are words? Are they the things that get listed in dictionaries, or are they the basic units of sentence structure? Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy explores the implications of these different approaches to words in English. He explains the various ways in which words are related to one another, and shows how the history of the English language has affected word structure. Topics include: words, sentences and dictionaries; a word and its parts (roots and affixes); a word and its forms (inflection); a word and its relatives (derivation); compound words; word structure; productivity; and the historical sources of English word formation.

McGraw-Hill's Essential ESL Grammar: A Handbook for Intermediate and Advanced ESL Students

2009-03-09T02:51:00.000-07:00

Get expert instruction on. English basics and a little extra help on the. more tricky grammar

McGraw-Hill�s Essential ESL Grammar does more than. cover the basics of English; it pays special attention to. those irksome subjects that trouble even native English. speakers. Mark Lester, bestselling author of the most. widely used college grammar text in the country, has. developed an innovative method to help you. conquer tricky subjects such as articles, tense, verb. complements, word order, and more.

Sensitivity to subject-verb agreement in spoken language in children with developmental dyslexia

2009-03-09T02:43:00.001-07:00

The principle aim of this paper was to investigate sensitivity to subject-verb agreement morphology in children with developmental dyslexia. An auditory grammaticality judgement task was used to compare morphosyntactic abilities of primary school dyslexic children relative to normally developing children matched on chronological age and children matched on reading level. The dyslexic children performed significantly worse than both control groups. The findings of this study contribute to other evidence that morphosyntactic skills may be compromised in developmental dyslexia. Specifically, subject-verb agreement morphology may be affected in dyslexic 8year-old children in such a way that it cannot be the consequence of a delay in reading ability.

Normal and pathological development of subject-verb agreement in speech production: a study on French children

2009-03-09T02:40:00.000-07:00

We report a study on the spoken production of subject-verb agreement in number by four age groups of normally developing children (between 5 and 8;5) and a group of 8 children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI; between 5;4 and 9;4), all French speaking. The production of verb agreement was experimentally elicited by asking children to complete sentence preambles containing a head noun and a potentially attracting 'local noun'. In contrast to previous studies that focused on attraction with local nouns within the subject constituent (postmodifiers), we also studied attraction with local nouns in structures that are not part of the subject constituent (interpolated adjuncts). In normally developing children, we report that (1) attraction effects appear from early on; (2) singular is produced as the default number until age 7 included; (3) more errors are produced with adjunct structures than with postmodifiers, but only from age 8;5 on. In contrast, even the older SLI children showed no attraction effect, a predominance of the singular as default, no effect of syntactic structure and, more generally, persistent high error rates. The turning point observed between 7 and 8;5 in normal children, characterized by a reduced error rate and a significant effect of syntactic structure, is interpreted as an index of the automatization of agreement. The syntactic structure effect is discussed in terms of the interplay of structural and working memory factors in the computation of long-distance relationships.

Grammarian 2.0

2009-03-09T02:38:00.000-07:00

Grammarian 2 is a tool that can help improve your writing skills. Fast, easy, and reliable, Grammarian helps you write professionally and accurately. Grammarian can interactively check your grammar while you type, and can also batch-check and perform statistical analyses in a single pass. You won't waste time running separate procedures to count words, sentences, and syllables per word, or to check punctuation, style, grammar, and mechanics. Grammarian allows you to adjust your writing level by grade, and offers more styles and rules for even greater flexibility.

Grammarian 2 features improved statistics, letting you monitor interest level and reading ease. It checks interactively or by batch in almost every application, including word processing, page layout, and e-mail. Grammarian also expands and converts contractions. Its intelligent Thematic Relations Technology allows the software to make in-context suggestions to improve your writing. Use Grammarian's customizable writing styles and over 150 writing rules to make your ideas clear and easy to understand. Grammarian also works in conjunction with Spell Catcher 8 to give you a complete writing solution.

Wheel of Subject-Verb Agreement (Grammar's Slammin') (Library Binding)

2009-03-09T02:37:00.000-07:00

The Smarts and the Upstarts are today's contestants on The Big Wheel of Grammar! The Smarts have chosen subject-verb agreement for today's category. Can they outsmart the Upstarts by placing the correct verb in their sentences? Find out and learn grammar in this thrilling story about subject-verb agreement!

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

2008-10-27T04:51:00.000-07:00

This newly updated edition of America's favorite dictionary features revised biographical and geographical entries as well as up-to-date charts and tables for topics such as world currencies and chemical elements. Among the 500 entries new to this update are Amber Alert, blogosphere, gravitino, halo effect, hawala, lycopene, malware, micropolis, proteome, Qi Gong, SARS, shout-out, speed dating, sudoku, Texas hold'em, text message, and wiki.

The renowned American Heritage® Usage Panel, a group of more than 200 distinguished writers, scholars, and scientists, offers advice on problems of grammar and style; engaging notes explain word histories and clarify differences among synonyms; thousands of quotations and example sentences show words in context; and elegant definitions are enhanced by 4,000 full-color photographs, drawings, and maps, making this one of the most readable dictionaries available anywhere.

This dictionary can also be purchased with a fully loadable Windows® / Mac® CD-ROM that contains the entire text of the updated Fourth Edition, 68,000 audio pronunciations, 1,000 full-color photographs and illustrations, and a college-level thesaurus with more than 260,000 synonyms. The CD-ROM has spell-check capability and
can be used in conjunction with any Microsoft® Office application to get definitions at the click of a mouse.

The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology

2008-10-27T04:49:00.000-07:00

This comprehensive dictionary by one of our century's greatest language scholars provides a clear and brief account of the origins, history, and sense-development of more than 38,000 words.

Dr. C.T. Onions first joined the staff of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1895. He worked on the OED, the Shorter OED, and then published his Shakespeare Glossary in 1911. A wonderful and learned scholar, he died in 1966 as the first edition of The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology was going to press. Assisted by G.W.S. Friedrichsen and R.W. Burchfield, Onions created a magnificent work of erudition, with 24,000 main entries. Including their derivatives, the dictionary delves into the origins of more than 38,000 words.

For each entry, the dictionary provides the correct pronunciation, followed by a short definition, and the century and source of the word's first recording. Then come the etymological notes. Thus one learns that "froth" (an aggregation of small bubbles on liquid) was first noted in the 14th century, in Sir Gawain and the Bible, that it comes from the Old Norse frooa, and was taken from there into German (fraup) and Old English (froth). Now in its fifth printing and a standard reference for scholars, Onions's opus is still the most comprehensive etymological dictionary of English ever to be published. --Stephanie Gold

The Merriam-Webster English Dictionary

2008-10-27T04:47:00.000-07:00

A completely revised and updated edition of this best-selling language reference is now available. Covers the core vocabulary of everyday life with over 75,000 clear, concise definitions. Includes pronunciations, word origins and synonym lists. Special sections and tables.

Since 1937. Merriam-Webster is America's foremost publisher of language-related reference works. The company publishes a diverse array of print and electronic products, including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Eleventh Edition – America's best-selling desk dictionary – and Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster can be considered the direct lexicographical heir of Noah Webster. In 1843, the company bought the rights to the 1841 edition of Webster's magnum opus, An American Dictionary of the English Language, Corrected and Enlarged. At the same time, they secured the rights to create revised editions of the work. Since that time, Merriam-Webster editors have carried forward Noah Webster's work, creating some of the most widely used and respected dictionaries and reference books in the world.

The New Oxford American Dictionary

2008-10-27T04:44:00.000-07:00

*Starred Review* Recently there has been publicity about young lexicographers and their work with major American dictionaries. Erin McKean, 34, is the editor of the second edition of The New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD) and continues the tradition of publishing a well-researched and current source of U.S. English. The first edition, with different editors, was published in 2001. What has changed in four years?

Words, of course, have been added and deleted. There are more than 2,000 new entries. Google and weblog are now in, information superhighway is out. The type appears larger, and a line or two has been added to the brief country histories to bring them up to date. Another addition is the useful feature "The Right Word," which discusses synonyms. An example is the entry for attack, which, in addition to a half-column definition, has another half-column discussing the differences in meanings for the synonyms assault, besiege, charge, molest, and storm, among others. The first edition was criticized for not having a pronunciation key on every page, something the new edition remedies. The lists of U.S. presidents and states, tables of weights and measures, and most other features of the ready-reference section remain, but the lists of members of selected halls of fames have been dropped in favor of a "Language Guide," which includes commonly misspelled words and redundant expressions.

Definitions continue to be organized around the "core" meanings--that is, "the one that represents the most literal use that the word has in ordinary modern American usage." Similar to other current dictionaries, biographical, proper, and place-names are included--al Qaeda; Botox; 9/11; Rice, Condoleezza; Splenda; and Sunni Triangle are new additions to NOAD. Black-and-white photographs and line drawings are still interspersed in the text, with the entry for novelist Nadine Gordimer now having a photo. Julia Child's and Ronald Reagan's deaths in 2004 are noted.